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THE 

HELLENIC KINGDOM 'j^f 

AND € W Wf 

THE GREEK NATION. 



BY 

GEORGE "VlNLAY, ESQ. 

OF LYOSHA, 

PHILHELLENE, HONORARY MAJOR IN THE GREEK SERVICE, 

AND MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY OF NATURAL 

HISTORY, AT ATHENS. 

■«, « 

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY S. G. HOWE. 



Earth is sick, 
And heaven is weary, of the hollow words 
Which States and Kingdoms utter, when they talk 
Of Truth and Justice. — Wordsworth. 






BOSTON: 

MARSH, CAPEN & LYON. 

NEW YORK: DANIEL APPLETON & CO. 

1837. 









• ./■■ \ ; - 

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1837, 

by Marsh, Capen & Lyon, 

in the Clerk's office of the District Court of Massachusetts. 



3<?fS 



Printed by William A. Hall &. Co. 



EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. 



TO THE PHILHELLENES OF AMERICA. 

Time was, when the mere announcement of a 
work on Greece, was received by the American pub- 
lic with interest; and any thing relating to the 
country, was read with avidity. 

That time, however, has gone by ; the imperfect 
narrative of the Greek Revolution is recorded in the 
rarely consulted page of history ; and the sufferings 
and atrocities which saddened and disgraced it, as 
well as the heroism and the devotion which dignified 
and adorned it, are already forgotten. 

But, that revolution was only the birth-day of 
Modern Greece, and rife as it was with scenes of 
thrilling interest, the seven years that have elapsed 
since its completion, afford more important study to 
the statesman, and more interesting speculation to 
the philanthropist. 

It was indeed gratifying, to find that there was 



iv editor's introduction. 

enough of physical courage and strength — enough 
of patriotism and devotion left among the Greeks, to 
carry their country through a seven years' war of 
almost unprecedented horrors and devastations ; it 
was cheering to think that freemen again trod the 
plains of Marathon — that the flag of Greece streamed 
from the walls of the Parthenon, and floated o'er the 
waves of Salamis : but the all-important questions oc- 
curred, whether the people could guard, as well as gain 
their liberties ; whether they could as wisely act, as 
they had bravely fought ; and whether the beacon 
which freedom had lighted upon the frontiers of civili- 
zation, would continue to blaze, and to illumine the 
East, or go out again, and leave all in darkness and des- 
potism. 

These questions, the last seven years have been 
solving ; and many an anxious eye hath been fixed 
upon Greece ; and many an eager question hath 
been put to every traveller who had wandered to her 
shores, about her situation, her institutions, and her 
prospects. The answers to these questions have 
generally been as unfavorable, as unsatisfactory and 
untrue: the world has continued to judge of the 
character and the actions of the Greeks, by the re- 
ports of hasty tourists, of Smyrna traders, or of 
superficial naval officers, and it has concluded that 
the Greeks are unworthy of freedom or of respect. 

There is, however, a mass of evidence in the real 
progress which the people have made ; in the eager- 
ness with which they have embraced the few good 
institutions offered by their rulers ; and in the deter- 



mination with which they have resisted the encroach- 
ments upon their rights, that has been entirely over- 
looked except by the intelligent foreigners resident 
in the country, and by a few abroad, who have had 
peculiar advantages for ascertaining the real state of 
things. 

It has often occurred to us, when defending the 
character of the Greeks from what we knew were 
undeserved aspersions, to be asked in a triumphant 
tone, — " How do you account for the fact, that almost 
all traders and travellers, who have been among the 
two people, invariably say, that they like the Turks 
better than the Greeks ? " The answer is perfectly 
simple ; the trader prefers to deal with the dull Turk 
upon the same principle that he likes to trade with a 
stupid Indian, who will take his glass beads for pre- 
cious stones j but he dislikes the wily Greek, who is 
a match for him in any speculation, and who will 
not trade without a sufficient quid pro quo. We do 
not mean that there are no traders with the East, 
who are willing to extend a fair reciprocity of gain ; 
we know that there are some honorable and high- 
minded merchants among them, but they are the ex- 
ceptions, and we know that some of them prefer to 
deal with the Greeks. 

But, as a general rule, trade is trick in the East, 
and the Greeks owe to Turkish injustice, oppression, 
and bloody violence, the eminence which they at- 
tained as sharpers and traders. They were obliged 
to cheat, and deceive, and live a life of dissimulation 
A* 



VI 



in order to live at all : the Turks subsisted by vio- 
lence and rapine ; the Greeks by cunning and deceit. 

The Greeks who lived in contact with the Turks, 
became supple and faithless ; and those who came 
in contact with Europeans, and learned their lan- 
guages, learned too their vices. They formed a dis- 
tinct class • they were the interpreters of the Turks, 
and of the foreigners ; they were the guides, the val- 
ets of travellers — the floating members of society, 
with whom, and with whom alone, foreigners came 
in contact, and by whom the whole mass of the 
Greek nation was, and still is hastily judged, and 
hastily condemned. 

Americans writhe under the sarcasms, and exclaim 
against the misrepresentations of the Trollopes, the 
Halls, and the Abdys, who, with a knowledge of their 
language, manners and customs, spend years of ob- 
servation among them, and then describe them ; but 
they readily adopt the opinion, formed of the Greeks 
by travellers, who pass a few weeks in the country, 
or touch at the seaports, and who, without knowing 
one word of the language, or coming in contact with 
any but valets, guides, and shop-keepers, set down 
the whole nation as a pack of rogues. 

They know nothing of the interior, nothing of the 
language, nothing of the peasantry ; nor have they 
an idea of the natural intelligence, and the acquired 
knowledge of the mass of the people. 

But there are other foreigners, men of education, 
and talent, and respectability, who have lived for 
years in Greece, and who have, almost without 



editor's introduction. Vll 

an exception, changed the opinions they first formed, 
and who think so well of the Greeks and the coun- 
try, and are so sanguine about the march of civiliza- 
tion and improvement there, that they have invested 
large fortunes, and established themselves in it. 

Among them, is George Finlay, Esq. the writer of 
the following work ; a gentleman who embarked heart 
and soul in the cause of Greece, at the darkest period 
of her revolutionary struggle ; who devoted to her 
cause the best years of his youth, without ever de- 
manding a dollar for his services ; and who, now that 
her Moslem enemies are all vanquished, devotes him- 
self to defending her by his pen, from her calumnia- 
tors, and her European enemies. We knew him 
long and well ; we saw his firmness and his attach- 
ment to Greece displayed in that dark hour, when the 
besom of desolation was sweeping her whole land — 
when the few foreigners whom the sword had spared, 
were sinking under their sufferings, or flying from 
apparently inevitable destruction — and when the par- 
asites, who have since fattened under the adminis- 
trations of Capo D'Istrias, or King Otho, were far off 
and secure in their homes. 

The possession of a large fortune, and his refusal of 
all recompense, renders Mr. Finlay's Philhellenism 
unquestionable; but besides this he has every other 
claim to the confidence of the public ; his reputation 
for integrity and chivalrous feeling, is widely extend- 
ed in Greece ; he possesses the respect of the people, 
and the confidence of the King, to whom he was Aid- 
de-Camp during his minority. 



vm 



He writes neither for fame, nor for money ; for he 
has enough of both, to satisfy him. He supposed that 
the drawing up of the following expose of the internal 
affairs of Greece, since the revolution, would interest 
all Philhellenes, and advance her cause ; and without 
one moment's thought of the consequences to him- 
self, he has done it. 

We have long delighted in his friendship, and since 
we left him on the shores of Greece, after the close 
of the revolution, we have been favored with his cor- 
respondence. He has sent us his MSS. and desired 
us to present it to the American Philhellenes, which 
we do with pleasure ; and if the feeble weight of our 
testimony in favor of the soundness of its views, will 
add to the confidence with which it is received, we 
shall be much gratified. 

As to the national character of the Greeks, it is 
very difficult, even for those best acquainted with 
them, to draw it ; indeed, it is impossible, unless we 
divide the people into several classes. 

As a nation, we may safely call the Greeks a nerv- 
ous, excitable, and intellectual people. Their phys- 
ical endowments give them high rank among the 
Caucasian race ; though swarthy, their skin is fine 
and clear ; their bodies slender, but well-formed and 
beautiful ; and the whole organization is such as to 
make them sensitive, restless, and enterprising. The 
moral qualities, it must be owned, are not now very 
apparent, but this is the effect of external causes 
which soon will cease to exist ; while on the other 
hand the animal propensities are not strong ; for the 
people are temperate, active, industrious, and chaste 



IX 

Nothing is more remarkable than their self-depen- 
dence, arising fromthe early and active use of the men- 
tal faculties ; for, without education, the Greeks have 
decidedly more intelligence — more savoirfaire, than 
any of the eastern nations. They have little con- 
scientiousness, but much cunning ; and are deceit- 
ful, and very greedy of gain, though not avaricious ; 
for they spend liberally and cheerfully. 

Such are the general characteristics of the race ; 
now for the orders : the commercial Greeks, the val- 
ets, the interpreters, the floating population of the 
Levant, are, in general, cunning, deceitful, fawning and 
unprincipled knaves ; the peasantry are industrious, 
provident, temperate, chaste and hospitable; the moun- 
taineers are gay, hardy, honesty independent and 
brave. We know that it is the fashion for travellers to 
deny the courage of the Greeks ; but we know, too, 
that the Turks, the old masters of the country, con- 
sidered the Armatoli of the North, the Suliotes, the 
Mainotes of the Peloponessus, and the Sphaciotes of 
Candia, as the bravest and most redoubtable men in 
their wide domain : they never fairly subdued them, 
but employed them as partizan warriors. We have our- 
selves witnessed among them many instances of dar- 
ing, that would be called fool-hardiness among Brit- 
ons and Americans. 

With regard to the question whether the Greeks 
are or are not fit to exercise the right of freemen, it 
will be answered differently by different persons. We 
are not among those who suppose the test of a peo- 
ple's capacity for self-government is the amount 



x editor's introduction. 

of knowledge they possess ; the Germans, for in- 
stance, are called a well-educated people, and yet we 
hesitate not to say that the Greeks are better fitted 
for self-government than the inhabitants of the south 
of Germany ; and for this very simple reason, they 
are capable of individual self-government ; and, po- 
litically, they have been accustomed to considerable 
exercise of the rights of citizens. This may seem 
strange, but it will appear clear to those who under- 
stand the internal. affairs of Greece. 

Again, we do not acquiesce in the common doc- 
trine that a despotic government is the best for an ig- 
norant and degraded people ; we hold that the dan- 
gers to any country and to any race, in the long run, 
are infinitely less from the excesses of a people drunk 
with freedom, than from the selfishness and wicked- 
ness of tyrants, who would keep them grovelling in 
ignorance and vice for the security of their own in- 
stitutions. 

We say, better for a people, is instability and 
change — better is error and misrule, aye ! better is an- 
archy and revolution, with all their attendant storms 
of passion, than the dull lethargy which it is ever the 
aim of despotism to produce. We believe firmly in 
the tendency of man to amelioration ; we trust fear- 
lessly to the natural superiority of the moral senti- 
ments, and if men and nations can be kept in action, 
they will finally triumph. 

But the question of the capacity of a people for 
political self-government, should be decided, we hold, 
on the same grounds that we should decide the ca- 



XI 



pacity of a person for individual self-government: if 
his animal propensities are so strong that he cannot 
submit to moral restraint, or if his intellect is so weak 
that he cannot see the necessity of restraining and 
guiding his actions by the moral sentiments, then he 
is not fit to rule himself, much less, to govern others. 

Tried by this test, and compared with other na- 
tions, the Greeks will be found to merit a considera- 
ble degree of freedom : their intellectual capacity ever 
has been, and still is, of the highest order ; their elas- 
ticity of spirit is unbroken ; the Greek is never blood- 
thirsty, never gluttonous, never drunk ; he is tem- 
perate in all but joy and grief ; and the vices that dis- 
grace his character, are those produced by oppression 
and degradation. 

We have said that the Greeks have always been 
accustomed to exercise political rights ; we refer to 
their municipal and sectional governments, which 
were, from selfish but sound policy, undisturbed by 
the Turks. But this subject will be found explained in 
the following work, which we hasten to introduce, and 
which, we hesitate not to say, is the most profound and 
valuable work that has been printed on Greek aifairs 
for many years ; we do not however expect that it will 
interest the public generally; for, to read it with profit 
and pleasure, one must have been conversant with 
the political changes which have taken place in 
Greece since the revolution. Those changes, or at 
least their causes, are not generally known ; but still, 
Greece has in this country many warm friends, many 
who will be glad to read any thing on which they can 



Xll EDITOR'S introduction. 

rely respecting her present situation : to them the 
work is recommended, with the strongest convic- 
tion that they will find in it sufficient proofs that 
they have not extended their enthusiasm and friend- 
ship to a people unworthy their regard. 

S. G. Howe. 

Boston, January 9, 1837. 



PREFACE 



A long residence in the East, and long in 
tercourse with the Greeks, have created in 
the mind of the writer of this pamphlet, a 
strong interest in the fate of the Greek peo- 
ple, and a deep conviction of the existence 
of great latent energies in their national char- 
acter. The present state of the Turkish 
Empire, and the creation of the Hellenic 
Kingdom, have now given a certain degree 
of political importance to the whole Greek 
nation, and awakened a hope, in the breasts 
of all those who speak the Greek language, 
of being one day united under the same laws, 
institutions and government. Feeling per- 
suaded, that very much is yet to be learnt 
concerning the Greek people, before their 
progress can be well understood, or efficient- 
ly aided ; and seeing, that very inaccurate 
ideas of the mental capabilities and moral 
qualities of the nation are prevalent, the 
writer ventures on the publication of these 
observations, with the hope of giving the 



12 PREFACE. 

public more accurate impressions than those 
generally entertained, or of inducing some 
other writer, better able to illustrate the sub- 
ject than himself, to take up the pen. As 
his object is strict accuracy, he begs that his 
attempt may be judged, rather by its truth, 
than by its style. 

Since he may be considered as stepping 
forward as the advocate of the Greeks, he is 
anxious to disclaim all intention of being the 
enemy of the Turks. He feels indeed the 
strongest detestation of their government; 
regarding its existence as inseparable from 
the perpetration of evil, and the debasement 
of the moral feelings of its subjects. Still, 
he doubts not, that where a people possesses 
a distinct national character, there exist, in 
the very causes of that peculiar nationality, 
the means of calling into action a mass of 
virtue. Now, as the Turks have for ages had 
a peculiar national character, perpetuated and 
preserved by a distinct language, there can 
be little doubt, that if they possessed a sound 
political organization, the good features of 
human nature would soon predominate over 
the bad, even in their public administration, 
which is now the chief seat of national cor- 
ruption. The official Turk is generally false, 
tyrannical and bloody ; but those who have 



PREFACE. 13 

been intimately acquainted with private in- 
dividuals of the better classes of society, agree 
in declaring them to be just, humane and 
honorable, while the national courage in 
every rank of society is undeniable. 

The crime, therefore, of its own suicide, 
must rest with the Turkish Government ; but 
the defects of the social system of Turkey, 
which must soon cause a dissolution of the 
empire, are inherent in the circumstances of 
the people who inhabit these countries. Could 
each separate race of the population of this 
extensive realm be divided from the rest, by 
some all-powerful fiat, and those who speak 
a peculiar language, or are amalgamated by 
a similarity of usages, institutions and reli- 
gion be entirely kept apart by geographical 
boundaries — then, perhaps, it would not be a 
hopeless task to attempt the political im- 
provement of the Turkish Empire, bv some 
systematic combinations. As any such wild 
speculation is, however, not likely to be real- 
ized, and as the Greek, Turk, Arnaout, Ser- 
vian, Armenian, Curd, Arab and Drussee, 
are likely to remain for ages mingled togeth- 
er in different parts of the Ottoman Empire, 
it is probable that the shifts of diplomatic 
convenience will have a more direct influ- 
B 



14 PREFACE. 

ence on the fate of the provinces and people 
of the Turkish Empire, than any considera- 
tions relating to the feelings and prospects of 
its population. 

From this general indifference, however, 
the Greek nation has already secured an ex- 
emption. A part of its population has al- 
ready entered the European republic, as an 
independent state, and the existence of the 
Hellenic Kingdom is deeply connected with 
the political schemes of diplomacy in the 
East. That part of the Greek nation which 
has secured its independence, must exert so 
powerful an influence on the millions of 
which the whole people is composed, that 
their feelings can no longer be neglected in 
any arrangements concerning their ultimate 
fate, if it be expected that such arrange- 
ments are to be permanent. The object, 
therefore, of these observations is to present 
a faithful account of the leading features of 
the present moral and political condition of 
the inhabitants of the Hellenic Kingdom, and 
to examine the means by which they are 
likely to exert a permanent and beneficial 
moral influence, on the condition of their 
countrymen, who are yet subjects of the 
Turkish and Russian Empires. 
Athens, July 25, 1836. 



INTRODUCTION 



In the present state of the East, when the im- 
portant problem of the fall of the Ottoman Empire 
and the subsequent fate of its mighty relics both 
engages and alarms the statesmen of Western Eu- 
rope, the affairs of the Greek nation must gradu ally- 
force themselves on the attention of the public. 
Nearly five millions of souls speak the Hellenic 
language, and are closely united together by a com- 
munity of feelings, institutions, literature and reli- 
gion, which has been powerful enough, during the 
vicissitudes of two thousand years, to preserve their 
distinct nationality, even though it has been lost by 
different races of their conquerors. The fate of the 
new Hellenic Kingdom, which the alliance of Eng- 
land, France and Russia have founded, while it will, 
if the new state be well administered, exercise an 
extensive influence on this powerful body, must also 
be liable to be affected, and perhaps at times directed 
by national feelings, having their origin beyond the 
limits of the kingdom. The fortunes of Greece, and 
the fate of the Greeks are not confined to that fa- 
mous spot of earth, celebrated for the number of its 
independent republics in ancient times, and for the 
smallness of its independent kingdom in modern; 



16 INTRODUCTION. 

and if the incapacity of foreign law-givers succeeds 
for a time in arresting the progress of native talent 
in this spot, other places will be found free from the 
inconvenience of these restrictions, where the polit- 
ical and intellectual fever now circulating in the 
veins of the nation will display itself with additional 
force. Many artisans and shepherds have already 
emigrated from liberated Greece at the moment her 
rulers are inviting immigration. The same meas- 
ures which produce these emigrations may induce 
the learned and the wealthy to follow the example, 
and Russia and Turkey would both offer them a 
distinguished reception ; while in the latter it would 
not be difficult for them to exert a powerful moral 
influence over their countrymen, an influence not 
likely to prove very favorable to the system or the 
country which had driven them to this measure. 

As there can now be little doubt, in the minds of 
those who have paid attention to the affairs of the 
East, that the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire 
must very soon take place, in spite of the forbearance 
which the armed force of England and France im- 
poses on Russia and Egypt, it becomes probable, 
nay, almost certain, that the most influential political 
body which will replace the European part of the 
Turkish empire must be composed of the Greek 
nation. Their numbers and their superiority in 
knowledge to the rest of the inhabitants of these 
countries, will secure them this fortune, by whatever 
arrangements or under whatever modifications dip- 
lomacy may find itself compelled to carry this result 
into execution. 



INTRODUCTION. 17 

The immense importance of the establishment of 
a national system of administration in the Hellenic 
Kingdom must hence be apparent. Without such 
a system, no good moral influence can be exerted 
over the national mind, nor can the people be pre- 
pared for availing themselves in a worthy manner of 
any favorable changes in their condition. Unless a 
just and national system of Government be estab- 
lished in the new state, the numerous and wealthy 
Greeks at present residing in Russia, Austria, and 
Turkey, will be more inclined to direct their atten- 
tion to the formation of an independent mercantile 
community under the guarantee of these three pow- 
ers, than risk their fortunes and happiness, to share 
the independent political lot of their poor, over-taxed, 
and oppressed countrymen. 

The terrible effects of the Greek revolution, and 
the barbarous conduct of the Turkish Government 
during its continuance, have for the present collected 
all the Greeks of talent and influence, of whatever 
province, in the liberated state. The Hellenic King- 
dom possesses, from this circumstance, at the present 
time, an extraordinary power of directing the im- 
provement of the political, moral and religious state 
of the whole nation. The knowledge that all the 
literary men of talent and the most respected of the 
Greek clergy are now citizens of Greece, keeps the 
eyes of the Greek population of Turkey directed for 
example and instruction to the new kingdom, and 
will continue to do so as long as the stirring events 
of the revolutionary war are fresh in their minds. 
But what permanent influence can a population of 



18 INTRODUCTION. 

650,000 souls, in a corner of the Archipelago, hope 
to exert over the four millions of Greeks who are 
scattered over Europe and Asia, unless that influence 
be based on the example of a national system of 
Government, a popular literature, and superior reli- 
gious instruction. 

Now, as the present administration of Greece is 
not yet settled on any consistent national system, but 
a foreign prime minister, with the advice of the diplo- 
matic agents of the protecting powers, still directs 
with absolute power the whole of the public business 
according to temporary exigencies, liberated Greece 
is rapidly approaching the critical moment when it 
will be decided, whether she is to stop short in her 
career, and sit down, the poorest, and proportionally 
the heaviest taxed country in Europe ; or whether, by 
the cultivation of her national institutions, by the 
application of the principle of publicity and the con- 
trol of public opinion to her internal organization 
and the strictest economy to her financial affairs, the 
Hellenic Kingdom is to serve as the model on which 
the Greek nation will rebuild the fabric of their polit- 
ical society. By establishing a strict administration 
of justice, complete security of private property, and 
a sound system of civil and religious education based 
on national institutions, the Hellenic Kingdom has it 
in its power to do more for the civilization of the 
East and for the consolidation of a moral power be- 
yond the influence of Russian control, than all the 
fleets and armies of England and France can ever 
achieve. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

General Observations 13 

CHAPTER II. 

On the state of the Greek Population 
prior to the establishment of the 
Hellenic Kingdom - - - - 19 

CHAPTER III. 

View of the proceedings of the differ- 
ent ADMCNISTRATIONS IN GREECE SINCE 

1832 ------- 50 

CHAPTER IV. 
View of the actual condition of the 
country, and the means of its im- 
provement 81 



THE 

HELLENIC KINGDOM 

AND 

THE GREEK NATION 



CHAPTER L 

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 

Three years and a half have now elapsed since 
the Government of Greece has been entirely entrust- 
ed to foreign statesmen. Three years and a half 
ago, a numerous body of Bavarian troops, infantry, 
cavalry, artillery and engineers, arrived in Greece, 
flushed with all the fervor of military enthusiasm. 
Bands of irregular and lawless soldiery, a half-clad 
people suffering under the pressure of famine, and a 
country every where laid waste, in which a tree or a 
cottage were no where to be seen, offered certainly 
no very inviting prospect to the new rulers. Had 
the Regency* consisted of men more experienced 

* The Regency which acted for H. M. King Otho, during his 
minority, was composed of three members. Count Armansperg, 

2 



14 THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 

in practical affairs, its members would have felt that 
their foreign troops were too numerous, and much 
too expensive for a permanent royal guard ; and that 
they were not numerous enough, nor sufficiently ex- 
perienced, to be of any use as a conquering army. 
The glittering arms of these fine troops, and the 
golden prospects of the high pay secured by the 
funds which the allied powers had placed at the dis- 
position of the Regency, and which they generally 
lavished on their countrymen, removed the sombre 
coloring which the future might otherwise have of- 
fered.* Nothing was heard at Nauplia but the sounds 
of rejoicing. The Greek people, delighted with the 
hopes of tranquillity, and regarding the presence of 
their king as a guarantee for all the advantages of an 
European Government, hailed his arrival with the 

a Bavarian Minister of Finance, who was supposed to have aided 
the present King of Bavaria in that admirable system of financial 
reforms, which has enabled him to spend more money in public 
works, than any sovereign in Europe. Mr. Mawrer, who had ac- 
quired a high reputation as Professor of Law ; and General Hei- 
deckj who is a man of taste, and an excellent painter. Not one 
of them understood a word of Greek. 

* The Bavarian troops received higher pay than the Greek. 
Bavarian Captains, and we believe even Lieutenants were advan- 
ced to the rank of Lt. Colonels, and Colonels, while Greek officers 
and Philhellenes, who had served the whole revolution, were reduc- 
ed from Colonels to Captains. The Bavarian officers received al- 
so larger allowances' than the Greek. This was the first cause of 
the complaints of the Greeks and Philhellenes against what was 
called the Bavarian System in the army. Things have now so 
much changed, that the irregular Albanians are in as much favor 
to-day, as the Bavarians were three years ago. Is either system 
national 7 



AND THE GREEK NATION. 15 

sincerest joy. The Regency received the homage of 
the nation with assurances of protection, defence 
and civilization. In a few days Greeks and Bavari- 
ans mingled together in public festivities, and per- 
fect unity of purpose seemed to pervade Greece. 
Promises and prophecies were loudly made concern- 
ing the progress which Greece was soon to make in 
arts and arms. The genius of Hellas, aided by Teu- 
tonic judgment, was expected to create a new era ; 
and already visions' of another"^ Greek empire, and 
projects for colonizing the East from the banks of 
the Iser, floated in the imaginations of the statesmen 
who composed or surrounded the Regency. 

Such was the state of Nauplia in the early days of 
Count Armansperg's presidency. Let it be compar- 
ed with the result, now that he is Arch-chancellor, 
after two years at least, of as absolute power as gen- 
erally falls to the lot of a Grand Vizier. What prog- 
ress has Greece yet made in commerce, civil and 
military organization, and public security? What 
has the much vaunted Teutonic judgment done for 
the improvement of Greece? Where are now the 
visions of the newJ3avaro-Greek empire, and where 
the long-cherished project of a German America 
blooming in the Levant ? 

It is true that Greece, during the intermediate peri- 
od, has been gradually rising from her ruins, the peo- 
ple are settling down to agricultural occupations, new 
houses are every where building, land is rapidly re- 
claimed, and vineyards are, in some favored districts, 
climbing the sides of the rugged hills. The Greek is 



16 THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 

again, as formerly, heard singing, and seen dancing 
after the labors of the day. Does he not then ac- 
knowledge that he owes this amelioration of his cir- 
cumstances to the gay strangers who landed in the 
Peloponnesus with their glittering helmets, some 
three years and a half ago ? The writer has often 
asked this question, and he has invariably received 
for answer a short negative. " No, we owe it to the 
presence of our king, and to the protection of the 
Allied Powers," is almost invariably the reply. So 
just are the observations of the Greeks on the real 
situation of their public affairs. We believe that 
our readers will see, in the course of these observa- 
tions, that the Greeks are perfectly right, and that 
their progress has been in spite of an anti-national 
system of civil administration, and a total want of 
system in a series of blundering military, legislative 
and financial measures. 

During the first days of the Regency, every thing 
was decided by rules and prejudices imported from 
Germany; and the object of the Government appear- 
ed to be to assimilate Greece to Bavaria in the short- 
est possible time. That scheme having failed, the 
object of the present day seems to be to render it as 
unlike what it had become in the late attempt as 
possible. The inconsiderate conduct of Mr. Maw- 
rer, during the period he possessed the direction of 
the Regency, the failure of General Heideck's war 
with Main a, and his measures to form a foreign 
mercenary army in Greece, overthrew the moral 
respect paid to the Bavarians on their arrival. While 



AND THE GREEK NATION. 17 

the necessary consequence of Count Armansperg's 
neglect of ail military system in forming an army, was 
to compel him to entrust the suppression of the late 
rebellion in Acarnania, to bands of irregular soldiery, 
enrolled for the occasion by the Greek chiefs, whom 
General Heideck's persecution had rendered the op- 
ponents of any organised military system. 

The truth is, there never were two people be- 
tween whom less real sympathy can exist, than be- 
tween the Germans and the Greeks. The highest 
German functionaries in the kingdom have never 
appeared to take any interest in the internal amelio- 
ration of the country, nor, though some of them 
have received salaries equal to the incomes of the 
ten wealthiest Greek subjects united, have they ever 
expended one dollar on the improvement of the 
country from which they have drawn this exorbit- 
ant pay. Not one of the Bavarians has planted a 
tree or a vineyard, though many of the other for- 
eigners of inferior incomes, English, Americans, 
French, Russians and Italians, have contributed 
considerably to the ornament and improvement of 
the cities of Greece which they have inhabited. 
The English do not owe less to the Dutch who 
accompanied William III., or to the Hanoverians 
who attended George I. to London, than the Greeks 
do to the Bavarians who have accompanied King 
Otho. If Greece, therefore, is to form an indepen- 
dent state, and if King Otho is to rule a happy and 
flourishing people, it must be by the exertions of 
the Greeks themselves. Greece must rise or fall 
2* 



18 THE HELLENIC KINGDOM. 

by the national institutions, and national character 
of the people. Its government, good or bad, must 
be such as they themselves can administer, suita- 
ble to their wants, and capable of being carried 
into execution by their means. 

Before proceeding to our observations on the 
national institutions and character of the people, 
and the form of the general internal administra- 
tion of government to which these naturally lead, 
we conceive it necessary to give a slight sketch of 
the most remarkable of the social features of the 
Greek population, prior to the establishment of the 
Hellenic Kingdom. 



[19] 



CHAPTER II. 

ON THE STATE OP THE GREEK POPULATION PRI- 
OR TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE HELLEN- 
IC KINGDOM. 

It is certainly impossible to give an accurate view 
of the state of a people, without possessing a just esti- 
mate of their national character. It has ever been 
considered difficult to form an accurate estimate of 
the Greek character ; and, in this sketch, it is not ex- 
pected to accomplish that which natives themselves 
own to be a hard task. We shall only endeavor 
to state what appears to be the prominent features 
of the people, and what exerts a peculiar influence 
on their condition. These features appear to us 
extremely different from those generally selected as 
characteristic of the nation, in Western Europe. 

No race of men can carry with them a more dis- 
tinct identity of character than the Greeks. In all 
the varied circumstances of the Ottoman and Rus- 
sian Empires, whether as crowned slaves on the 
thrones of Wallachia, or as starving warriors on the 
mountains of Maina, a certain similarity of national 
character stamps them as Greeks. The first fea- 
ture which makes an impression on strangers, is 



20 THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 

the rapidity with which the Greek of every station 
combines and classes his ideas, and refers all his 
actions to the guidance of his mental faculties, 
whether his mental inclinations be virtuous or vi- 
cious. The vices, however, of the Greeks, drawn 
into relief by circumstances, have rendered their 
character an unpopular one; and, as usually hap- 
pens with all unpopular characters, a number of 
new vices have been most unfoundedly attributed 
to it ; and even some of its virtues have been decri- 
ed as vices. Many of these ascribed vices are the 
mere modification of circumstances, and by no 
means inherent features in the national character, 
from which they would quickly vanish, if a better 
destiny were open to the people. The extreme dif- 
ficulty of portraying at full length the Greek char- 
acter, must be immediately felt by any one who re- 
flects on the varied fate of the different portions 
of this singular people. Let us examine the most 
common accusation current against the Greeks in 
the seaports of the Mediterranean. The dealers 
in figs, generally describe the Greeks as a race of 
the rankest cowards. Nay, the whole Frank * pop- 
ulation of the Levant unite at least in this accusa- 
tion. Yet, amidst all the warlike tribes who march 
to battle under the eye of the predestinated Turk, 
the Roumeliot Greek has ever enjoyed the very 

* The Franks of the Levant are the descendants of European 
parents, who have lost the national distinctions of Europe without 
assimilating with the natives of the East. They form a numerous 
body in the chief commercial towns, and entertain their own pe- 
culiar ideas and prejudices. 



AND THE GREEK NATION. 21 

highest reputation for valor. His services are 
sought for by the Pashas of Europe and Asia, 
and he is mingled with the Arnaut as his equal 
in courage. What, but a respect for the courage, 
and a confidence in the fidelity of the Greek Ar- 
matoli, could have induced the Turks to preserve 
these Christian militia for nearly four centuries T 
Surely, on this subject, few will be inclined to doubt 
whether the opinion of the Turkish officers or the 
Frank merchants is best entitled to credit. The 
truth is, that the falsity of the Fanariot statesmen, 
and the meanness of the rajah traders, aTe not 
more proverbial in the East, than the frankness 
and courage of the Roumeliots, or the pride and 
honesty of the Hydriots. The naval islanders, 
the Mainotes, Snliots and Roumeliat population are 
all constitutionally brave, and habitually warlike. 
Indeed, the little kingdom of Greece can boast, in 
proportion to its population, not too small, but far 
too large a number of active and daring soldiers, 
inferior in every warlike quality except discipline, 
to no troops in Europe, and in many of the quali- 
ties of the soldier superior to almost all others. We 
make this assertion with the full conviction that 
several European officers who have served with the 
Greek troops, will readily vouch for its accuracy.* 
Let us not suppose, however, that the debased 
character and unsettled principles of the Fanariots, 

* Three years' service in the Greek army, and an intimate ac- 
quaintance with many European officers, who served there during: 
the revolution^ enable us to confirm this statement.. — Am. Ed, 



22 THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 

the turbulence of the Roumeliots, and the intriguing 
spirit of the Moreat Primates* embrace all the prom- 
inent phases of Greek character ; and that, as some 
say, the Greek is incapable of tranquillity and steady 
domestic industry. The contrary appears from ex- 
perience to be the real case. From the occupa- 
tion of the most flourishing part of the Greek popu- 
lation, it may be inferred that the natural bias of 
their character is not so much inclined either to 
war or commerce, as to rural occupations and ag- 
riculture. It has been remarked, by all travellers, 
that no rural population in Europe has ever arrived 
at a higher degree of civil organization, arranged 
their local governments better, or displayed more en- 
ergy and judgment in the conduct of their munici- 
pal concerns, than the Greeks. Without running 
over a long catalogue of names, we may refer to 
the state of many of the Greek islands, to the popu- 
lation in the mountains of Thessaly and lower Mace- 
donia, to Talanta, Livadia, and several districts in 
the Morea, prior to the revolution, and to several 
communities of Greeks in the Ottoman Empire at 
the present day. Every village in which there was 
no resident Turk, if the property of the soil belong- 
ed to the inhabitants, invariably presented a happy 
and industrious aspect. The people were employed 
about their own private affairs, and in order to 
transact the public business of the village, they 
elected one or more of their most experienced and 

* The Primates were the heads of the rich families; the land 
proprietors, who formed an aristocracy, resembling that of the 
feudal system. — Am. Ed, 



AND THE GREEK NATION. 23 

respectable fellow-citizens to act as chief magis- 
trates. To these magistrates, called Demogerontes, 
were united the parish priest, and to them was en- 
trusted the whole civil and police jurisdiction. Even 
the collection of the public taxes was generally 
transacted by these means, and the amount was 
thus remitted to the Turkish authorities, without 
that oppression which usually marked the direct 
communication of Turks and Greeks. Much of 
that strong spirit of nationality, which has ever 
formed a leading feature in the Greek character, and 
has enabled the people to transmit to the present 
generation some of the institutions and usages, as 
well as the language, of the ancient republics, is to 
be ascribed to this system of local governments. 
Before we say any thing more concerning the in- 
stitutions of Greece, let us conclude our desultory 
observations on the national character of its natives. 
The most prominent features in the character of 
the Greek, under every varied change in his lot, are, 
we think, activity of mind, general intelligence and 
aptitude to comprehend and receive the mental im- 
pressions of others, inquisitiveness, and a love of 
knowledge joined to strong desire for personal inde- 
pendence and equality. These feelings, we think, 
may be traced in all the provinces where the Greek 
language is spoken, and seem constantly to have 
exerted their influence on the nation. We do not 
pretend to deny, that many of these feelings may, 
and that some are, often misled to evil, but still 
we doubt not, that every candid inquirer will be 



24 THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 

convinced, that, possessing these feelings, the Greek 
must have a national character capable of leading 
him to the highest pitch of mental improvement, 
and the power of so modelling his institutions, 
that he will not only insure his moral progress 
where he has already gained political independence, 
but must obtain also the amelioration of his moral 
and social condition, even where he remains sub- 
jected to a foreign yoke. 

In considering the condition of the Greeks at the 
period of the establishment of the present monar- 
chy, it must be recollected that the war of the rev- 
olution had reduced the surviving population to a 
state of the most complete destitution. All agricul- 
tural stock was extirpated,* horses, barns, and sta- 
bles were destroyed, fruit-trees and vineyards rooted 
up, the very forests, from which the dwellings might 
have been reconstructed, were every where burnt 
down, lest they should afford shelter to the unsub- 
dued population. The sword, famine and disease, 
had reduced the inhabitants of the continent and 
the Morea to about one third of their original num- 
ber. We believe there has been no war in modern 

* The destruction of agricultural cattle was so complete, that 
Professor Thiersch, in his excellent work (de l'etat actuel de la 
Grece, et des moyens d' arriver a sa restauration, vol. ii. p. 3 — ) 
proposed to import into Greece 10,000 pair of oxen, the year of the 
Regency's arrrival, and 100,000 the year after. Such gigantic 
measures caused his work to be very unjustly ridiculed, even by his 
own countrymen. The work, with all its enthusiasm and exagger- 
ation, contains more truth than any other we have seen on Greece ; 
and, after all, the Professor was right in the main ; " Greece," as a 
member of the corps diplomatic, said, " had more need of boeufs 
than Bavarois. 



AND THE GREEK NATION, 25 

times ill which an equal loss of property and life 
has been sustained by any people which, amidst this 
suffering, has remained unsubdued. From the 
commencement of 1821 to the end of 1832, Greece 
had been deprived of every internal resource. Her 
commerce, on which a population of at least 250,000 
souls was directly dependent for subsistence, was 
completely annihilated.* The commercial navy, 
which had formerly not only maintained all this 
multitude, but likewise added annually to the na- 
tional capital, suddenly became a drain on former 
savings ; for the whole revenue of the Archipelago 
did not suffice to pay and provision the fleet for six 
months, without providing any fund for purchasing 
stores and ammunition, or for the necessary repairs 
of the vessels, all which had to be furnished from 
the former savings of the proprietor of the ship.f 
The armed population on the continent amounted 

* In Gordon's History of the Greek Revolution, (Vol. 1, p. 160,) 
a work of the most scrupulous accuracy, we find the marine of the 
islands of Hydra, Spezzia and Psara, alone estimated at 240 sail, 
from 325 to 600 tons. Kasos, Galaxidhi, and many other places, 
possessed a number of smaller brigs and schooners. The Greek 
Kingdom has not now half the number of vessels Greece then had, 
and probably not one quarter the tonnage* 

t The manner in which several of the leading families of Hydra 
fulfilled this duty, is proved by the diminution of their fortunes. 
The Condouriottis, the Tombazis, Miaoulis, Vasili, Boudouri, 
Tzamaddoff and Boulgari, have all employed very large sums in 
the service of their country in this way. Some leading families 
are reduced to poverty, and suicide has lately, in three instances, 
been the shelter from starvation. 

3 



26 THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 

at times to 50,000 men, and as the labor of most of 
these was withdrawn from agriculture, this immense 
body had also to be maintained, in great part, from 
the accumulated capital of the country. In the 
mean time, all the richest plains remained unculti- 
vated, from being the seats of war. It is not, there- 
fore, to be wondered at, that a few years should have 
sufficed to consume the whole native resources of 
Greece. The flocks and cattle were all consumed 
for the support of the soldiery, and the shepherds 
became bands of soldiers, in order that they might 
eat their own sheep; and when their flocks were 
consumed, what could they become but bands of 
robbers? Even with the immense supplies which 
Greece received from the Philhellenic committees of 
Europe and America, the revolution seemed not un- 
frequently to be in some danger of extinction from 
the starvation of the whole population. Without 
the Philhellenic supplies, the English loans, and the 
long series of payments made by France to Capo- 
distrias, the whole population of the continent must 
have, in the end, emigrated ; for from the year 1821 
to 1832, Greece imported several months' subsistence 
every year, and foreign grain and provisions to the 
value of at least £800,000, for which she had no 
produce to offer in return, and thousands of individ- 
uals in Greece have passed weeks without tasting 
bread, living on herbs. The extreme difficulty of 
finding nourishment for the soldiers, soon became 
one of the greatest sources of the internal disorders 
which afflicted the country during the war. When 



AND THE GREEK NATION. 27 

the greater part of Greece was exhausted, the leaders 
of the troops were compelled either to dispute the 
possession of those provinces which still offered 
some resources, or, by yielding their possession to 
others, confess their military reputation and power 
inferior to that of their fortunate rival, and disband 
their troops. Emulation once roused, the civil war 
for the maintenance of the troops was soon carried 
on with as much vigor and animosity as the war 
with the Turks. After civil war had commenced, 
it was not at all unnatural that combinations of 
chiefs, formed to seize or secure the possession of 
particular provinces, should attempt to make their 
tenure more permanent, by striving to render them- 
selves masters of the reins of government, and thus 
become the dispensers of the supplies which arrived, 
in a constant stream, from the excited feelings of 
Europe. Let not the unreflecting fancy, as we 
have often heard asserted, that these very supplies 
were the real cause of the civil war, or even suppose 
that they did not tend very considerably to alleviate 
the miseries of Greece. 

We cannot here pass unnoticed the hackneyed 
assertion, that the strongest point of resemblance 
between the modern and ancient Greeks, is their 
love of civil war and faction. We shall therefore 
venture a few words in defence of both the ancient 
and the modern Greeks. The ancient Greek repub- 
lics were, in spite of their diminutive size, as much 
independent states, and had as good a right of ap- 
pealing to club law, as any modern kingdom in Eu- 



28 THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 

rope, and probably did so generally, on quite as 
legitimate causes of quarrel. Sparta was certainly 
as much justified by the principles of political wis- 
dom in striving to establish oligarchy throughout 
Greece, as Russia is in now striving to uphold ab- 
solute monarchy throughout the civilized world. 
Athens consulted her true interest as much in oppos- 
ing Sparta, and extending her democratic propagan- 
da, as England does hers in opposing Russia, and 
supporting the principles of constitutional liberty. 
Nor are the historical results of a comparison with 
ancient Greece more favorable to the critics. Athens 
was indeed far smaller than Great Britain in extent 
of territory, less numerous in population, and poorer 
in wealth ; yet, in arts, literature and all intellectual 
glory, she does not suffer by a comparison. The 
Macedonian state was smaller than the kingdom of 
France, before each engaged in that career of con- 
quest which flattered them with universal empire. 
In courage, and in military skill and conduct, the 
Macedonians do not appear to have been inferior to 
the French ; while in the success of their undertak- 
ings, and the permanency of their conquests, they 
have a great advantage over their modern rivals. 

But with regard to that division into factions, 
which so strongly marked the internal organization 
of the Greek states, and which has been supposed to 
impel the moderns to civil war by an hereditary in- 
stinct, we can only observe, that we are much more 
inclined to blame the ancient Greeks for their abuse 
of power, when obtained, than for their formation of 



AND THE GREEK NATION. 29 

parties to obtain it. We see everywhere that party- 
spirit is inseparable from the expression of that dif- 
ference of opinion which is the natural consequence 
and the surest guarantee of a free government ; and 
that what is called faction, is most prominent in the 
most enlightened and civilized countries and periods. 
That the parties in the Greek republics abused suc- 
cess, is perhaps rather to be attributed to the imper- 
fect political institutions of their states, which com- 
pelled them to nourish fierceness of manners as a 
defence against despotism. Perhaps we ourselves, 
in some very recent occurrences at home, owe our 
tranquillity more to the power of our political organ- 
ization and the influence of our manners, than either 
to the personal moderation or want of factious feel- 
ings in our political leaders. 

Various moral and political causes produced the 
wars and factions of the ancient Greeks; totally 
different causes produce those of the modern ; but it 
is doubtless far easier to say, with Lord Byron's 
French Athenian, " Sir, they are the same canaille 
that existed in the days of Themistocles," and that, 
as the descendants of the ancients, they are impelled 
to faction and civil war by a natural instinct, than 
to inquire into the causes of these civil wars and 
factions, however simple and apparent they may be. 

We believe that the fact of the Greek troops being 
compelled to consume more than the annual produce 
of the country, and the natural instinct of armed 
men to help themselves, is quite sufficient to explain 
the commencement of the civil wars in modern 
3* 



30 



THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 



Greece; and we believe the circumstances in which 
the country was placed, sufficiently explain the per- 
manence of the dissensions which ensued, without 
seeking for any marked tendency to these vices in 
the national character. Can it be regarded as any- 
thing remarkable that Hydriots, Speziots, Psariots r 
Cretans, Samiots, Suliots, Romeliots and Peloponne- 
sians, should act as separate tribes, and attack one 
another to secure the means of existence, when suf- 
fering under the pressure of famine, and allured by 
the hope of comparative wealth and power? Is it 
peculiar to modern Greece, that unprincipled politi- 
cians should strive to excite the turbulence of sol- 
diers in order to serve their own personal intrigues? 
or, is it in the Greek revolution for the first time that 
national resources and public wealth have been 
squandered for party purposes ? Let it not then be 
made an especial reproach to the Greek revolution , 
that it is deeply stained with domestic strife ; but let 
the critic, who will not examine the causes of these 
vices, point out where the sword has ever been 
drawn, in the holiest cause, without all the worst 
feelings of human nature, as well as the noblest, 
displaying themselves in the struggle, and finding 
the means of augmenting the misfortunes and rous- 
ing the passions of mankind j and let him reflect 
that no Greek, in all their civil wars, even when un- 
successful, ever called in the aid of the national ene- 
my. We hope, as we proceed, we shall be able to 
show, that there are circumstances in the present 
state of the country which render it more than 



AND THE GREEK NATION. 31 

probable that the people will now seek far other 
occupations than war, at home or abroad, if the 
measures of their rulers permit them. We do not 
indeed hesitate to say, that if the "disinterested 
passion for blows," which so strongly characterized 
the ancient Greeks, were to be a leading feature in 
the modern Greek character, we should abandon all 
hope of ever seeing any rational civilization intro- 
duced into liberated Greece. 

During the state of destitution which prevailed in 
Greece, from the breaking out of the war until the 
arrival of King Otho, there were two periods of 
comparative tranquillity, which strongly marked the 
elasticity and enterprize of the Greek character, and 
which prove the truth of the assertion, that there is 
in the country a very marked attachment to the 
quiet pursuits of rural industry. In the Morea, the 
year 1823 was one of comparative tranquillity, and 
it was supposed that more land was cultivated during 
that year, with the war raging around, than had 
been cultivated for some years prior to the revolu- 
tion. The next period of tranquillity was that 
which ensued during the presidency of Count Capo- 
distrias. Then, although no arrangements were 
adopted for facilitating the employment of capital in 
property, although no sales of building ground took 
place, and although the farmers could neither pur- 
chase dwelling-houses, gardens nor vineyards, nor 
obtain leases, for a term of years, of the land they 
cultivated, while the internal trade, from one port to 
another, remained subject to a duty of six per cent. ; 






32 THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 

still many* houses were built, gardens and vine- 
yards planted, and much national land was brought 
under cultivation in every part of the country, with- 
out any guarantee having been obtained, by the 
cultivators, to secure the permanent enjoyment of 
the fruits of their labors. Indeed Capodistrias, dur- 
ing the first two years of his government, before he 
placed his policy in direct opposition to the feelings 
of the nation, maintained a degree of order in the 
public administration, which was rapidly gaining 
confidence, and inducing considerable capital to be 
devoted to agricultural improvements. 

The circumstance of greater order having existed 
in Greece during the presidency of Count Capodis- 
trias, than at any other period of the revolution, has 
been the cause of the feeling of respect which seems 
generally entertained for his talents in Europe. 
That he was really very far superior in talents to 
any of the statesmen who have succeeded him, there 
can be no doubt ; but as his talents were those of 
a man exercised in the combinations of circum- 
stances and the exposition of measures, not those of 
one habituated to examine general principles, or con- 
nect the execution of isolated measures with a gen- 
eral system of administration, we have very great 
doubts whether he ought to derive more credit for 
the temporary improvement of Greece during his 

* At Vrachori alone, 300 houses were built on national property, 
and Government has never had the good sense to grant the ground, 
on which the houses stand, to the builders. This populous place 
allowed a band of fifty rebels to occupy it in spring. 



AND THE GREEK NATION. 33 

early administration, than Charles X., who furnished 
him with the money, which, by paying the troops, 
secured the absence of disorder. Neither Capodistrias 
nor his successors in power, to the present day, have 
ever felt that the government of a new country, and 
especially the government of a country by foreign- 
ers, in order to be in harmony with its subjects, must 
submit its measures to the test of public opinion, and 
learn from this source the modifications which may 
be suitable to the exigencies of actual circum- 
stances. 

The general government of a new country, where 
the bonds of social union are slightly tied, must 
attempt as little as possible to command the people ; 
for it should never once allow them to know, which 
may be easily learnt, that it may command without 
the power of enforcing obedience. In all the details 
of administration it must study existing usages and 
habits, where they dawn into incipient institutions * 
and, by aiding and directing them in their progress, 
it must seek to secure the execution of its wishes 
without compromising its authority. If it be impos- 
sible, as may sometimes be the case, to prevent the 
people going wrong, government had better, by a 
judicious modification of the evils resulting from the 
error, gradually seek to enlighten the people, than, 
by opposing the torrent, run the danger of creating 
disorders more dangerous than the evils it would 
avoid. The truth indeed is, that, in three times out 
of four, the people, in cases of internal administra- 
tion, are more likely to be right than the govern-- 



34 THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 

ment. A government which has not the halo of 
antiquity to adorn it, or the prejudices of feudality or 
religion in its favor, is not now likely to be regarded 
as anything more than an agent, whom the people 
have named to transact the general business of the 
state, as the town-councils are named to transact the 
business of the communities, whatever may be the 
modifications to which it is submitted in order to 
secure stability. Unless, therefore, the government 
of a new country act in unison with the habits and 
views of the nation, not only will the progress of 
both be arrested, but they will soon be placed in 
opposition, and the opinions of one must soon suc- 
cumb to the power of the other. The superior 
knowledge of statesmen in that which is their own 
peculiar business, is too apt to lead them to consider 
their good intentions a warrant for rashly deciding 
in favor of their own opinions ; but they ought to 
recollect that, as servants of the nation, they cannot 
know better than their employers what tends most 
to their employers' happiness. 

We conceive that the administration of Count 
Capodistrias deviated too markedly from the course 
here signalized, to have aided much towards the 
permanent improvement of Greece. It was a series 
of unconnected measures, adopted according to a 
very confined and partial view of the modifications 
of every varying event, not based on any plan of 
internal organization of the nation, and not even 
reduced to a uniform system. It is true, Capodis- 
trias was placed in difficult circumstances. It was 



AND THE GREEK NATION. 35 

not in his power, before a treaty had been concluded 
with Turkey, to venture on reducing the number of 
the armed population ; nor would it perhaps have 
been then prudent to adopt any general measures 
relating to the distribution and cultivation of the 
national lands, to which the military made just 
claims of participation. Still he had it in his power 
to systematize the communal organization of Greece, 
already in existence, and to settle the mass of exiles, 
from the Turkish islands and provinces, who were 
then wandering about the country ; yet he did all 
he could to destroy the first, and he left the exiles to 
perish with hunger, or return to become industrious 
subjects of Turkey. The professional statesmen of 
the continent seem, however, in general, from the 
prejudices of an education amidst the strictest rou- 
tine, little adapted for new or unusual conjunctures ; 
and Oxenstierns' remark is probably as applicable 
to the statesmen of the present day, as it was to those 
of his own.* The views of Capodistrias, with re- 
gard to internal administration, seem to have been 
peculiarly erroneous, and his political economy and 
domestic policy were quite as vicious as his foreign 

* England and America, the two countries where statescraft is 
the least studied and esteemed, are certainly the countries best fur- 
nished with statesmen. In these countries statesmen demand 
information, and confess their willingness to learn ; but continental 
statesmen fancy invariably they know all things, from the estab- 
lishment of a council of state, to the application of a leech. See 
Greek Gazette, No. 10, 1835. As Jeremy Bentham justly remarks, 
" it is a hard point in politics, to persuade legislators they do not 
understand shoemaking better than shoemakers." 



OO THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 

politics. His only defence seems to be, that he may 
conscientiously have believed that Greece could only 
be happy and tranquil when dependent on Russia, 
and that the euthanasia of the revolution was the 
incorporation of Greece in the Empire of all the 
Russias. That he was at heart a Russian, and an 
enemy to the freedom of Greece, is the general opin- 
ion of his countrymen, who accuse him of sacrificing 
their future prospects to personal ambition and 
views of family aggrandizement. Whatever progress, 
therefore, the Greeks may have made during his 
administration, must be attributed entirely to their 
own energetic and enterprizing character. 

We shall now attempt to investigate the causes 
which have chiefly tended to create and perpetuate 
this energy in the national character. This peculiar 
feature of the Greek, is nowhere so conspicuous, as 
in the manner in which, after the most dreadful 
disasters, and the almost total annihilation of the 
resources of his country, he sets himself to work to 
commence a new life of industry, and by which, the 
moment the union of half a dozen families takes 
place, he lays the first foundation of civil govern- 
ment. It is an interesting subject of speculation to 
examine to what causes it is owing, that the conduct 
of the Greek peasant tends, by the shortest path, to 
the advancement of the political and social organiza- 
tion of his country ; and to fixing, on a firm and 
intelligible basis, the whole relations of individuals 
to the general government; while the scientific 
measures of Counts Capodistrias and Armansperg 



AND THE GREEK NATION. 37 

have all ended in total failure, and in an awkward 
attempt to fit European laws to a people whose 
usages and institutions are totally incompatible with 
the machinery required for the execution of these 
foreign regulations. Can there be a better proof 
that the institutions of the Greeks are more suitable 
for constructing a good practical system of govern- 
ment, than that patch-work of modern philosophy 
and amended feudalism which German employes 
seem to fancy the perfection of statesmanship, and 
which forms the cumbrous machine by which the 
higher classes of Germany support themselves on 
salaries wrung from the people, under the pretext of 
doing work, which, we are inclined to suspect, might 
in many cases, with great advantage to the commu- 
nity, be left undone? The institutions of a people 
can never be suddenly changed by legislative enact- 
ments, for they form a more important and more 
influential part of national existence than laws them- 
selves. The institutions of a people give the true 
stamp to the national manners and the national 
character, and their strength will ever be attended 
with beneficial effects. Thus, when the institutions 
of France exerted so little influence on her govern- 
ment as to leave the manners of the court and army 
as the centre of national feeling, and made these the 
practical guarantees of ideal benefits, the seeds were 
sown of a revolution which destroyed the whole 
civil organization of the nation ; while, on the other 
hand, as the institutions of England connected the 
relations of every individual with the general admin- 
4 



38 THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 

istration of the state, and placed the centre of na- 
tional feeling in that expression of the political 
rights of the people called the English constitution, 
— an ideal guarantee of a practical good, — the 
perpetual means are secured of ameliorating that 
constitution according to every new exigency, by 
referring the proposed changes to the principles of 
these national institutions. 

The effects of the peculiar institutions of the 
Greeks are quite as remarkable, and exercise as 
extensive an influence on their character, as those 
even of the English. No social feature is more 
remarkable, and perhaps none less agreeable to 
strangers, than a species of local patriotism, which 
draws a marked distinction between the immediate 
society of each community, and the remainder of 
their fellow-countrymen. The Greek rarely speaks 
of his nation, yet he speaks continually and with 
enthusiasm of his country, — an epithet which he 
applies to his native village, whether his birth-place 
be the barren mountains of Suli, the rocky islands 
of Hydra or Psara, or the marshes of Missolonghi ; 
still it seems to contain for him every endearing and 
patriotic association which other nations find in 
their more enlarged signification of country.* This 

* Every' one who has had much intercourse with the natives of 
the East, at least in the Turkish Empire, must have been struck by 
the almost total absence of patriotic feeling, especially among the 
Turks themselves. No Turk, though bom and bred in Europe, 
regards it as his country; and, if pressed by questions, he generally 
transports his country to Mecca, which never has, and probably 



AND THE GREEK NATION. 39 

system of egotism is extended still farther ; for the 
Greeks have generally restricted the signification of 
Christian, to a member of their own church, if they 
have not adopted it as a word to express their na- 
tionality, as distinct from other nations in Turkey. 

Their common religion and language, and a simi- 
lar source of oppression, whilst they separated the 
Greeks from their conquerors, kept them linked 
together by these points of friendly contact ; but it 
was their strong local sympathies which alone united 
their hearts, and which, by making every little com- 
munity stand together, and feel as one man, trans- 
mitted to the present generation an uncorrupted 
nationality. When the nobles* of the Fanar, and the 
Primates of Greece had imbibed all the feelings of 
eastern slaves, and distinguished themselves only by 
subserviency to their tyrants, — selling their country 
to the Turks ; and, when the Turk condescended to 
trust them, selling him again to the highest bidder 
amongst the Greeks, — the uncorrupted local attach- 
ments of the peasantry bound them together, and 
preserved them true to themselves and to the nation- 
al cause. The patriotism of the higher orders, based 
on feelings too general and philanthropic for the 

never will be, peopled by Turks. Many provinces in Asia are 
inhabited by a population which regards itself stranger to the 
soil. Egypt and the Barbary coast is similarly circumstanced to a 
certain extent. Can statesmen ever remedy this moral obtuseness, 
or can a nation permanently exist where there is no such thing as 
" the dear name of country ? " Without it, man becomes a locust. 

* See Note L 



40 THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 

times, slept for centuries ; while that of the lower 
classes, circumscribed in a narrow sphere, was cher- 
ished with as much care and yielded as much light, 
during the darkest ages of Greece, as it now does in 
the hour of dawning liberty. 

Many of those Greeks who have been educated in 
Europe complain of the exclusive nature of their 
countrymen's patriotism, and the extreme bigotry of 
their local attachments ; and the Europeans in 
Greece loudly re-echo the complaint. There can 
be no doubt that this feeling is often carried to ex- 
cess, yet its beneficial effects have been so great that 
it hardly seems prudent to seek to check it. To it 
must be attributed no inconsiderable portion of that 
constancy which enabled so many to die of hunger 
rather than yield to the enemy, so long as their 
fellow-citizens resisted. And to this feeling must be 
attributed that charity, which, in so many instances, 
induced the Greeks to share together their last loaf. 
Such strong attachments may be found everywhere 
in the circumscribed sphere of a family : the insti- 
tutions of Greece have extended these feelings to a 
whole village ; but it may be doubted whether they 
are capable of a farther extension without some 
diminution of their force.* 

* We may remark that this exclusive feeling, though it leads the 
Greeks to avoid amalgamation with foreigners, creates no bigotry 
against their usages, which they naturally expect to find different. 
We have been assured by the experienced, that in no country can 
an agricultural population be found more ready to adopt improve- 
ments than the Greek. 



AND THE GREEK NATION. 41 

We believe that it is to this incredibly strong local 
attachment that the Greeks now owe their existence 
as a nation ; and the preservation of this patriotism, 
from the days of their former independence to the 
present hour, we believe they owe entirely to their 
system of communal administration — to their De- 
mogerontias. The admirable effects of this system, 
with reference both to the civil and financial govern- 
ment of the Greek subjects of the Ottoman empire, 
have been already pointed out by Mr. Urquhart, in 
his able work on the resources of Turkey. So 
justly important does he represent this system, that 
he has convinced many of his readers that the sole 
hope of the salvation of Turkey is in the mainte- 
nance of the administration of its Rayahs ; unless, 
peradventure, some foreign power may think fit to 
run the risk of her own ruin to delay the ruin of 
the empire of Mahomet.* 

The extreme simplicity of this system, and the 
fact that, while it developed public opinion, it con- 
ferred a power on the popular will which was the 
chief cause of its long duration, must render it wor- 

* Whether the reader agrees with Mr. Urquhart or differs from 
him, he cannot fail to admire his profound views on the moral and 
political state of the East. He seems the first writer who has felt 
the spirit of the people and government of Turkey, and distinguish- 
ed the institutions of the nation from the political government of 
the Sovereign. Still we do not see that Turkey can be saved by 
the augmenting wealth and power of her Rayahs, unless the Turks 
and the Sultan, in the end, adopt the religion and manners of these 
Rayahs, and thus create a communion of feelings and interests. 

4* 



42 THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 

thy of the attention of the practical statesman. We 
have already mentioned that it consisted in the elec- 
tion of one or more of their own number, by the 
inhabitants of the villages and towns. These magis- 
trates transacted, in the most public manner, the 
ordinary police, judicial and financial business of 
the community. In judicial affairs they were aided 
by the priest, and in financial business by the leading 
people of the place ; while in all difficult cases the 
heads of families, assembled at their meetings before 
the church, formed a real jury. By this arrange- 
ment publicity in public affairs was ensured, and 
public opinion was called into operation, as a practi- 
cal check on official conduct in Greece, and its bene- 
ficial effects were generally felt long before they were 
known or suspected in Western Europe. By this 
means a high degree of local information was kept 
alive amongst the people, and feelings of public 
interest were created, which for centuries prevented 
the Greek villagers from carrying their disputes be- 
fore the Turkish tribunals. These simple Demoge- 
rontes, or elders of the people, formed a barrier 
against the progress of the Ottoman power ; a moral 
barrier, which has restrained the torrent until its 
sources having failed, and the great lake which it 
had created is rapidly disappearing. 

The circumstance of finding an internal admin- 
istration of the rural districts organized to their 
hand, proved so convenient to the Turks, that they 
immediately availed themselves of it in their finan- 
cial operations ; and having once experienced the 



AND THE GREEK NATION. 



43 



facilities it afforded, they became its strenuous de- 
fenders, and thus secured to the Greeks the means 
of preserving their nationality at the very moment 
it seemed to be irrecoverably destroyed. The habits 
of the Greeks, in the executive details of their local 
business, are now so firmly fixed, that it is not a rash 
prophecy to declare, that no foreign rulers will ever 
govern the country who do not base the details of 
their administration on this institution — an institu- 
tion which is now established in adamantine secu- 
rity in the habits and heart of every Greek, and 
which can only be effaced by the total demoralization 
or extinction of the Hellenic race. 

In all countries where the system of centralization 
is adopted, the greatest difficulty of government is 
in the formation of that machinery, and of those 
usages and institutions amongst the people, which 
afford a guarantee for the stability of their conduct, 
and ensure their pursuing a consistent and uniform 
line in carrying into effect the intentions of the gen- 
eral government. In the most civilized countries, 
and with the most carefully educated agents, this 
difficulty is felt : how impossible must it be, then, to 
supply the imperfect and indefinite nature of all 
administrative legislation, where the distant ramifica- 
tions of government come into immediate contact 
with the interests of a people, in a rude state of soci- 
ety? In a rude state of society, therefore, where the 
intricate combinations of law and police, arising out 
of the innumerable exigencies of civilization, are 
unknown, it is probable that no better system of 



44 THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 

administration has yet been discovered than that of 
the Greek Demogerontias. Courts of justice must 
always be confined to questions affecting- rights of 
property, and pecuniary transactions of a certain 
magnitude ; and courts of police are invariably courts 
of corruption and tyranny, where they exist far from 
the control of the highest authorities. There can 
be little doubt that public opinion, and their own 
respectability, will ensure better conduct from the 
magistrates named by the people, than can be ob- 
tained from the doubtful knowledge and character 
which the miserable pittance the Greek government 
can afford its subordinate agents in the distant 
provinces can purchase from them. Who would 
not rather trust his cause to the honesty of a farmer, 
than to the science of a hired justice in a distant 
province? But whether this system be philosophic- 
ally the best, is now of little consequence ; the fact 
is, we find it universally established in Greece — we 
have two thousand years' experience of its good 
effects — no objection is urged against its operation, 
and we have it thoroughly understood by the people 
in all its practical details. On the other hand, the 
system of centralization will be very long of attaining 
a like perfection, under such directors as its present 
Bavarian and Fanariot patrons in Greece. 

The present system of local administration not 
only embraces the details of ordinary civil business, 
but it is applied to all questions of agricultural af- 
fairs. All disputes concerning rights of grazing, 
forest laws, irrigation and fallows, are determined 



AND THE GREEK NATION. 



45 



according to a code of unwritten usages, the collec- 
tion and publication of which would have been a 
task worthy of the Bavarian legists ; it would have 
presented the only living record of the ancient re- 
publics of Greece, and would have been of more 
general interest, to the historian of the human race, 
than the laws of the Lombards or the Bavarians 
themselves. It is strange, indeed, that, in a country 
where most things that are old are treated with 
affected veneration, the usages and institutions of 
the people, though the oldest in Europe, should have 
been treated with neglect and even contempt : and 
that it should have been attempted to legislate for 
this people without any collection of the existing 
customs, or any attention to usages which experience 
has proved to be so admirably calculated for perpe- 
tuity. This, however, has been done; and from 
the year 1832, the whole system of the Greek local 
administration has remained unacknowledged by the 
general government, and it continues to exist by the 
will of the people alone, while numerous translations 
of German laws and ordinances are published in 
the Greek Gazette as the guides of the country. It 
is needless to say, that three quarters of these foreign 
laws are waste paper in Greece, whatever impression 
they make, in favor of their authors, on the German 
public, when they appear in the Munich and Augs- 
burg newspapers. 

It may perhaps appear surprising to many, that so 
simple a circumstance as the existence of popular 
village magistrates, should have exercised so exten- 






46 THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 

sive an influence on the moral condition of the Greek 
nation. Bat let Englishmen reflect, that the foun- 
dations of their own liberty were laid in the ty things 
and hundreds of Saxon times, rather than in the 
Wittenagemots ; for, while the Normans overthrew 
all traces of the latter, the spirit of the Saxon com- 
munal administration preserved that moral strength, 
which, with the amelioration of society, ripened the 
Norman despotism into the British constitution. We 
fear not to say, that Greece has found her national 
spirit as well preserved by her Demogerontias as 
England had hers by her hundreds. Whether her 
future course may not be cheered and aided by her 
illustrious predecessor in the race of civil liberty, we 
shall not stop to conjecture. 

We conceive we have now given a sufficient ex- 
planation of the peculiarities of the social organiza- 
tion of political society in Greece, at the conclusion 
of the war of the revolution. The domestic civil 
administration, it will be seen, presented few difficul- 
ties, and the national voice pointed out distinctly the 
road to be adopted. Everything combined to facili- 
tate the task. The people were desirous of engaging 
in the cultivation of a rich and unappropriated soil, 
which was in sufficient abundance to satisfy the 
whole of the diminished population. Two thirds of 
the new kingdom being national property, the rent 
or the price of part of this land, was sure to put the 
government in possession of an amount of revenue 
amply sufficient for the impoverished state of the 
country. The commencing tranquillity, by encour* 



AND THE GREEK NATION. 47 

aging industry, was daily augmenting the wages of 
labor, while the increased cultivation was as rapidly 
lowering the price of provisions. All the favorable 
circumstances in new countries were found united 
in Greece ; added to which, that knowledge of the 
peculiar capabilities and products of the soil already 
existed, which long study and dear-bought experi- 
ence can alone supply in other countries, where sim- 
ilar advantages are usually found. The very incon- 
veniences attendant on a scanty population were not 
likely to be any serious bar to the rapid improvement 
of the country; for Turkey offered, in the immediate 
neighborhood, a numerous Greek population, eager 
to emigrate and become citizens of the new state. 
Capital, itself the last and most necessary requisition 
of civilized society, the want of which so long arrests 
the progress of new countries, seemed on the eve of 
arriving in considerable supplies, by the immigration 
of wealthy Greeks, and strangers from Europe, to 
purchase the Turkish estates for sale in Euboea and 
Northern Greece.* Had the government of the coun- 
try known how to profit by all these favorable cir- 
cumstances, Greece might, long before the present 

* Many Englishmen purchased' Turkish property in Greece, or 
have built villas there. — Sir Pulteney Malcolm, General Gordon, 
Messrs. Noel, Muller, Bracebridge, Skene, Bell and Edye. Messrs. 
Bracebridge, Noel, Muller, and the author of this pamphlet, have 
purchased large landed estates ; but the Greek government have 
thrown difficulties lately in the way of the sale of Turkish prop- 
erty, and it has been impossible to procure valid titles. Why, is 
inexplicable. 



48 THE HELLENIC KINGDOM. 

day, have made advances towards prosperity, which 
years must now elapse before she is likely to attain ; 
for one of those happy conjunctures, which so rarely 
return, has been allowed to escape unimproved. 



[49] 



CHAPTER III. 



VIEW OF THE PROCEEDINGS OP THE DIFFERENT 
ADMINISTRATIONS IN GREECE, SINCE 1832. 

Before reviewing what advances have been 
made by Greece in the career of improvement, 
during the last three years and a half, it may per- 
haps tend to facilitate a correct judgment on the 
subject if we state what were the general wishes of 
the country, and what measures public opinion had 
pointed out as indispensable to the success of any 
foreign administration. We believe no government 
ever assumed the direction of public affairs in any 
country, under more favorable auspices, than the 
Regency of King Otho's minority. The absolute 
necessity, not only of a foreign Sovereign, but also 
of some foreign administrators, was universally felt ; 
as every public man in the country had been tried, 
and all had been found wanting, in the highest of- 
fices of the state. The Sovereign who arrived, im- 
mediately gained the hearts of his subjects, by a 
degree of judgment, dignity and kindness remarkable 
at his early age, and which has never since, for one 
moment, forsaken him. This rare union of quali- 
5 



50 THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 

ties, so important in his station, have rendered King 
Otho one of the most popular monarchs in Europe, 
and his popularity has been no slight assistance to 
his public servants. 

The members of the Regency were men of talent, 
who enjoyed some reputation in their respective 
spheres of action. The hopes of Greece were there- 
fore justly raised to the very highest pitch. It was 
felt by all, that the whole general administration, as 
well as what is usually termed the executive power, 
would at first be thrown into the hands of the Re- 
gency. It would be invidious to attempt the collec- 
tion of the facts on which this opinion may have 
rested, and it is difficult for a stranger to decide on 
its justice, unless he should have enjoyed some op- 
portunities of observing the political conduct of the 
individuals who then figured in the highest public 
offices in Greece. At the same time, it was fully un- 
derstood, that, however superior the members of the 
Regency might be in knowledge of the general 
principles of administration, of the organization of 
the public offices, and of the science of law-making, 
still they must be far inferior to many of the natives, 
in knowledge of the wants of the country, of the 
objects for which new laws were required, the details 
to which legislation would alone be applicable, and 
the measures by which that legislation could be 
advantageously carried into effect. 

To supply this, it was supposed that the- Regency 
would, immediately on its arrival, assemble a Council 
of State, selected from the most influential and able 



AND THE GREEK NATION. 51 

men in the country ; and that they would have made 
this selection before personal motives or petty intrigue 
could in any way have warped their judgment from 
making the choice on general principles. That they 
would even have received into this Council of State 
a certain number of provincial members by popular 
election, as a means of ascertaining the extent of 
iocal feelings and prejudices, was expected by some, 
who founded their hopes on the supposed liberality 
of the opinions of the President of the Regency, 
the now celebrated Count Armansperg. It was 
thought that no step in legislation could possibly be 
taken by foreigners, totally ignorant of the language 
of the country, until this was done. A Council of 
State, it was said, would supply the readiest means 
of collecting information concerning facts ; it alone 
could prepare reports on the internal state of the 
kingdom, supported by proper evidence ; and it was 
shrewdly added, that the publication of these reports 
would afford the only guarantee the government 
could possess against being misled, and secure it 
from that unpopularity which must, more or less, 
attend every foreign administration. 

The next great measure which was expected, was 
the re-establishment and public ratification of all the 
existing institutions of the country, and an order for 
the legal election of Demogerontes in all the villages 
and districts where no elections had lately taken 
place, on account of the anarchy introduced by Ca- 
podistrias' tyranny, and the subsequent civil war. 
This was considered the readiest way of restoring a 



52 THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 

general and uniform administration in domestic 
affairs, and supplying the executive government im- 
mediately with the most efficient and experienced 
agents in the rural districts, which were firmly at- 
tached to the monarchy, and would aid the Regency 
in the execution of all its measures. 

Such were the two acts which, it was expected by 
the liberal party, would have marked the first hours 
of the sojourn of the Regency in Greece. So sweet, 
however, appears to be the possession of absolute 
power to all men, that Count Armansperg, Mr. 
Mawrer and Mr. Abel, though all three professed 
liberals, agreed, amidst all their quarrels and during 
all their respective periods of authority, in refusing 
to share with the Greeks one iota of that power 
which the three Powers had incautiously placed in 
such hands. It was not until the conclusion of last 
year, that the nomination of a body, without even a 
fair deliberative power, was framed under the name 
of a Council of State. 

We shall not enumerate the other leading meas- 
ures, on which the decision of government was 
anxiously expected, as some time was evidently 
necessary to their discussion and perfection. An 
immediate decision, however, was loudly called for, 
on some questions relating to affairs connected with 
the fortunes of large bodies of private individuals ; 
and as these subjects have generally a more imme- 
diate influence on national tranquillity, and often a 
more direct effect on national wealth, than the forms 
of the general administration, or the details of legal 



AND THE GREEK NATION. 53 

procedure, the neglect of them at similar conjunc- 
tures is peculiarly dangerous. The following five 
measures might certainly, under the necessary modi- 
fications, have been adopted with great advantage to 
the nation : — 

1. That the government should announce its in- 
tention to guarantee all the existing rights of prop- 
erty, honestly obtained. 

2. That a distribution of a certain portion of 
the uncultivated national lands should take place, 
amongst those who possessed no property in Greece, 
according to a fixed scale of civil or military service 
during the revolution. 

3. That an hypothetic loan fund should be estab- 
lished by the government, in order to lend money at 
a low rate of interest to those landed proprietors who 
had their buildings and stock destroyed during the 
revolution, according to a combined scale of their 
individual services and rank, and the extent of the 
mortgaged land. 

4. That sales of building ground and gardens 
should take place in the principal towns and vil- 
lages, in order to induce the permanent settlement of 
all resident capitalists. 

5. That leases of national land in the immediate 
vicinity of large towns should be granted, at a pub- 
lic auction, to be held every three months for that 
purpose. 

Besides the above, there were many others on 
which a considerable difference of opinion existed 
amongst the best-informed men in Greece, and on 
5* 



54 THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 

these, Government had no resource but to order re- 
ports to be prepared by competent persons, and to 
submit these reports to public discussion. Of these 
the most important were, the state of the foreign and 
internal trade of the kingdom and the means to be 
adopted for its improvement ; the means of providing 
for the liquidation of the foreign and domestic debts ; 
the mode of indemnifying the services of those who 
had fought during the revolutionary war ; and the 
vexata questio of the distribution of a portion of the 
national lands to every Greek citizen. The Govern- 
ment of Greece must now, when the neglect of the 
examination of these subjects is producing such bit- 
ter fruits, deeply regret its former jealousy of public 
opinion. 

Amidst public expectation of conciliatory measures, 
the Regency commenced its acts by an ordinance dis- 
banding the whole of the irregular army in Greece. 
A measure of great energy, on the wisdom of which 
public opinion is still undecided. By this ordinance 
the whole of the irregular troops in Greece were 
compelled either to become citizens, to enter the reg- 
ular troops, or to quit the kingdom.* Considering 
the prejudices which generally prevailed against reg- 
ular troops as not very efficient in Greek warfare, 
this may be considered a hard measure to have adopt- 
ed towards the constant defenders of Grecian inde- 
pendence. Many, however, struck by the disorders 
and ravages which had disgraced the civil wars 

* See the ordinance itself, Greek Gazette, No. 6, March 14, 1833. 



AND THE GREEK NATION. 55 

which immediately preceded the arrival of the Re- 
gency, considered the annihilation of the irregular 
troops as a first and indispensable step towards order 
and the security of property. Upon the whole, when 
it is considered that numerous bands of Turkish and 
Albanian robbers had already introduced themselves 
into Greece, and joined themselves with bands of the 
Messalian and Macedonian Armatoli, who formed in- 
dependent companies, unconnected either in interest 
or feelings, with the inhabitants or the revolution, it 
cannot be concealed that some very energetic and 
sudden measure was necessary to expel these bands 
before they could unite their forces. It was, how- 
ever, no easy matter to separate these from the rest of 
the irregulars with whom and with whose captains 
and parties they had become so mixed up, that any 
attack on the one, was sure to make enemies of both. 
Had the Regency, therefore, attempted to distinguish 
the innocent, the business would have become a mat- 
ter of detail, the distinctions in its execution, and the 
selection of the deserving must have been entrusted 
to the consideration of the Greek secretaries of state, 
and a dangerous lapse of time would have occurred 
between the decision and the execution of the ulti- 
mate measure. Maurocordatos must have protected 
one criminal allied with his military partisans ; Ko- 
letti must have supported another, to prove his influ- 
ence equal to that of his rival ; and the Regency, 
incapable of deciding amidst conflicting evidence, 
would in the end have discovered that no individual 
in the irregular army had committed the disorders 



56 THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 

which laid waste the greater part of Greece, in 1832. 
The ridiculous increase of officers which had taken 
place during this period of disorder had also render- 
ed the business much too complicated to be entered 
into in detail, with the slightest hope of a satisfacto- 
ry termination ; and there can be little doubt, that as 
much discontent would have been caused by any 
other possible arrangement, as that which flowed from 
the energetic and effective measure adopted; while no 
other could have succeeded in radically curing the 
disease. In such a case there was no time to lose — 
the measure, to prove effectual, required to be done 
suddenly, to deprive the irregulars of the possibility 
of concerting common measures, or learning the sen- 
timents of the most powerful leaders. For at that 
time there were ten thousand armed men in Greece, 
five thousand of whom were experienced soldiers, 
who would neither quit their arms nor adopt the 
habits of regular troops. It would have required 
more than five times the troops the Regency brought 
with them to Greece to have subdued these men, if 
they had found time to concert a common plan of 
operations, and to unite under an acknowledged lead- 
er. The rock of Korax, and the malaria of Ther- 
mopylae would have sufficed to save them from the 
Bavarian troops. The powerful party, called the 
Nappists or Russo-Greeks, stood ready to aid any 
movement which tended to keep up excitement and 
prevent the country settling into tranquillity, unless 
under their own administration. We feel little hes- 
itation, therefore, in saying, that the measure, though 



AND THE GREEK NATION. 57 

a severe one, was necessary for the security of the 
monarchy in Greece, and that it is far too important 
and too daring an act. to have been conceived by the 
feeble statesmen to whom accident entrusted its exe- 
cution ; had the talents which conceived such a meas- 
ure carried it into execution, it would not have been 
in the blundering way which leaves Greece at this 
moment, after a lapse of three years and a half, at 
the commencement of a series of measures to allevi- 
ate the evils resulting from the measures adopted in 
reference to the disbanding and enrolling the irregu- 
lar troops. 

In saying this, however, we are anxious to declare 
that the mode in which the measure was carried into 
execution, and the manner in which the native Greek 
troops were afterwards neglected by the three mem- 
bers of the Regency, in. their respective periods of 
power, will always reflect disgrace on their heads and 
dishonor on their hearts. The moment all danger 
from the irregulars ceased and their force was com- 
pletely broken, it became a sacred duty of the gov- 
ernment to provide a suitable means of embodying 
the soldiers of the revolution in organized bands, 
without enforcing any change of dress or arms. 
Subsequent events have shown the necessity of some 
such measure even for the defence of the kingdom. 
Unfortunately the Regency became too deeply engag- 
ed in settling themselves and friends comfortably 
down in the high pay and great offices, suddenly 
opened to their ambition, to think of the permanent 
defence of Greece, or the gratitude due to those who 



58 



THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 



had by their valor and services saved the kingdom. 
A period had, however, arrived when the services of 
the heroes of the revolutionary war were considered 
as belonging to a past epoch, while hopes of a bril- 
liant future was attached to the prospects of the he- 
roes of 1833. 

A very short time elapsed before it became appar- 
ent in Greece, that the members of the Regency were 
more occupied in organizing the machinery by which 
it was to carry on the work to be done, and in prepar- 
ing decrees and ordinances which, by their publica- 
tion, might secure the applause of the literary circles 
of Germany to their scientific details, than in invest- 
igating by what general principles remedies might 
be applied to the existing evils in Greece. Long in- 
structions to Secretaries of State and Prefects were 
published in the government Gazette, where they re- 
main, to this clay, a dead letter, or have produced lit- 
tle practical effect beyond an enormous waste of pa- 
per.* Great part of these documents are no way 
adapted to the state of the country, and evidently 

* The Greek Gazette contains the following curious ordinances. 
In No. 13. Instructions to the Secretary of State, for the Royal 
Household and Foreign Affairs. No. 14. Concerning the Depart- 
ment of Justice — The Interior — Public Instruction and Finance. 
No. 15. War and the Marine. No. 17. The organization of the 
system of centralization. No. 24. The establishment of a Naval 
Prefecture. If these laws are to be judged by the effects they have 
produced they are waste paper. However, we must not forget that 
the Greek Cabinet has never yet been composed of men who could 
communicate together in one language, understood by all its mem-* 
bers. 



AND THE GREEK NATION. 59 

drawn up without a single inquiry into the actual 
state of things. After these laborious efforts of ab- 
stract legislation, a few ornamental decrees were pub- 
lished, to polish and bring to perfection the external 
appearance of the new state — to imprint on it the 
most finished stamp of European civilization, and 
blend it harmoniously with the older Monarchies of 
the West. An order of knighthood was decreed, and 
the color and form of the uniforms of the civil ser- 
vants of the government were regulated with infinite- 
ly more knowledge of professional detail than gen- 
tlemen usually possess. Ornaments were profusely 
heaped on the public uniforms of individuals whose 
every day garments probably required the aid even 
of a domestic tailor. Such were the measures by 
which three eminent German statesmen seem to have 
thought that a people, in whom the first principles of 
political freedom and religious liberty were ferment- 
ing in the difficult task of organizing the social con- 
dition, could be permanently governed — the wealth 
and resources of a new state improved, and a new 
monarchy consolidated. With these matters, the 
general legislation of the Regency seems to have ter- 
minated on the 18th of April, 1833, and it commenced 
its labors of detail. 

The effects of neglecting to investigate the state of 
the country, were soon too apparent, in a series of 
troubles and misfortunes which, commencing shortly 
after the period we have cited, continued to embarrass 
the Regency until the majority of King Otho, in June, 
1835. Some disturbances broke out in Tinos, the 



60 THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 

head-quarters of the Capodistrians, which caused a 
long decree establishing martial law, in September, 
1833. It seems probable that this must be the event 
alluded to by the " Spectator," in the following words : 
" The continental journals state that martial law has 
been declared throughout the kingdom of Greece ; 
we suspect that the descendants of Leonidas are too 
familiar with martial law- — the only law which they 
have lived under for centuries — to feel any constitu- 
tional scruples about obeying their young monarch's 
proclamation." 

Shortly after this, the Regency and its Councillors, 
consisting chiefly of strangers and emigres Greeks, 
were so far misled in their estimate of the state of 
society, and so ignorant of the power which public 
opinion has already acquired in the country, as to 
venture some attempts to circumscribe the liberty of 
the press. Had these regulations been really directed 
against abuses of publication they might have been 
pardoned, but it was too evident that under an affect- 
ed care to guard against minor injuries individuals in 
office, a serious injury was wantonly inflicted on the 
nation. As far as government sought to restrain the 
freedom of political d iscussion, it totally failed, and 
Greece has still to boast of four political newspapers 
superior to very many continental journals, in which 
as great a latitude of party violence is displayed as in 
any country east of the channel.* Numerous schemes 

* These newspapers are the Athena, Sotir, Takhydhromos, and 
Greece regenerated. The first is a liberal opposition paper, on the 



AND THE GREEK NATION. 61 

of internal improvement followed, which had evi- 
dently reference to no practical effect farther than 
what could result from the eclat of their publication 
in the Augsburg Gazette. Amongst other projects it 
was decreed that seven great roads were to be formed 
to the uttermost ends of the kingdom ; and certainly 
the numerous Bavarian pioneers might have been 
thus very usefully employed. A road from the Pir- 
ceus to Athens, of five miles, is just completed, and a 
road from Nauplia to Corinth is carelessly traced ; 
such are the only results of three years labor ; and at 

principle of measures, not men. The second is supposed venal and 
entirely on the principle of men, not measures. The editor and 
Count Armansperg have lately had a violent personal quarrel. The 
Sotir says the Count promised him the portfolio of public instruc- 
tion, to secure the support of his newspaper, which is published in 
French and Greek during the stay of the King of Bavaria in 
Greece, and that when the King departed he pretended difficulties 
in the way of completing the bargain. Not only private individu- 
als of the highest rank were led by the Count to believe that he had 
decided on having the Sotir as a minister, but even the public were 
deceived at a fete, given either to an illustrious stranger or to the 
Editor of the Sotir, for the public conduct of the Count and his al- 
lies raised a doubt who was the lion. The Sotir now revenges 
himself by ridiculing the measures of the Count, in the most un- 
merciful way, and treating him with a mixture of contempt for his 
talents, and suspicion of his political integrity towards Greece, to 
which, probably, no prime minister of any country ever yet submit- 
ted. One of the remaining newspapers is ministerial, and the last 
is established to defend the prime minister as Chancellor, and throw 
the faults of the administration on the Greek Secretaries of State. 
Besides these there is a religious journal, by Greek priests, a mili- 
tary one, and two literary, which will be allowed to be a fair pro- 
portion of periodical literature, for a capital of 15,000 inhabitants. 



62 THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 

this rate of proceeding it will require at least 275 
years to finish the roads proposed. 

In the mean time, though little was effectuated in 
Greece, for the improvement of the country, the 
greatest activity was displayed abroad in the expen- 
diture of the loan, which the allied powers had placed 
entirely under the control of the three individuals 
who composed the Regency, without allowing the 
Greeks, either by means of a council of state or of 
the Greek secretaries of state, or even by public opin- 
ion, which would have followed on publicity, to offer 
any check to the general system of jobbing for which 
they are now expected to pay. The troops were re- 
cruited amongst the Bavarian burghers instead of 
amongst the Greek peasants — brood mares were 
transported from Mecklenburg, to breed mules in 
Greece — an entire cargo of pick-axe handles was 
brought, to make tools, and is now using as fire-wood 
— splendid military equipments were ordered in 
France — naval stores and steam-boats as far north 
as Sweden. 

Fortunately for Greece, a schism took place in the 
Regency, and the indecent quarrels of Count Ar- 
mansperg and Mr. Maurer, induced foreign interfer- 
ence to be called in for the preservation of decency, 
which might have been long neglected for the preser- 
vation of Greece. We shall not enter into the caus- 
es of this illustration that European statesmen can 
fight about the wealth and power of provinces with 
as much acrimony as the Greek capitani. Mr. Mau- 
rer, who appears to have been the best informed and 



AND THE GREEK NATION. 63 

most capable man in the Regency, has published 
three volumes, in justification of his views, acts and 
policy, which prove, only, that he was an able, ac- 
tive, conscientious man — mistaken from what his 
countrymen call one-sidediiess.* A very strong proof 
of the extreme unpopularity of the measures of the 
Regency, at this period, is the fact that Count Ar- 
mansperg became extremely popular amongst the 
Greeks, from the mere circumstances of its being 
known that he was opposed to his colleagues, though 
the remaining period of the Regency proved that his 
opposition was chiefly personal, since in no one case 
has he altered the an ti -national laws passed before he 
obtained power, and he continued to govern on the 
same exclusive principles. 

On the 2d of August, 1834, the king of Bavaria 
recalled Mr. Maurer and Mr. Abel, the secretary and 
supplemental member of the Regency, a man of great 
talents and ambition, and replaced them by an unim- 
portant individual, who had strict orders to secure, by 
his vote, a complete dictatorship to Count Armans- 
perg. The merits of Mr. Maurer's administration 
can now be very justly estimated, and public opinion 
has calmly ratified the hostile feeling his measures 

* Das grieehische Volk in oeffentlicher, kirchlicher und privat- 
rechtlicher beziehung vor und nach dem Freiheitskampfe bis zum 
31 Juli, 1834. von Georg von Maurer, &c. Heidelberg 1835—3 
bande. The work, however, contains much information on the real 
state of Greece, and shows well how difficult it is for the ablest 
stranger to govern a country without consulting public opinion, or 
knowing the language. 



64 THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 

awakened at the time of the promulgation. The 
truth is, that though Mr. Maurer was a man of talent, 
possessing a deep knowledge of his profession, and 
one who devoted his whole energies to the work of 
building up a liberal system of legislation for Greece, 
yet he was a subtle lawyer, not a profound legislator. 
He had lived and thought too much as a German 
professor of law, to estimate the real value of the 
feelings, usages and institutions of the Greeks ; and 
like too many of the politicians of the present day, 
he had fallen into the error of believing that there is 
a standard of law adapted to all countries and na- 
tions. 

The energy and activity of his government, how- 
ever, contrasts strongly, with the feebleness and leth- 
argy which has reigned amongst his successors, 
whose policy has, unfortunately, not tended more 
than his own to advance the prosperity of Greece. 
The undue favor with which the Germans were 
treated in the army, and the gross neglect of the ac- 
knowledged talents of the Greeks in the navy, con- 
tinued after his departure, and Generals Heideck and 
Lesuire will long be regarded as the real causes of 
the failure to form a regular army in Greece, by their 
systematic partiality and injustice. The organiza- 
tion of the judicial department, which Mr. Maurer 
himself conducted, was more judiciously arranged 
than any other of the foreign schemes introduced in 
Greece, precisely because the administration has been 
chiefly entrusted to Greeks. Yet, even in this de- 
partment, much remains to be done before the usages 



AND THE GREEK NATION. 



65 



and institutions of the nation are so dovetailed into 
the legal system, that the people derive full advantage 
from their knowledge of the practice of the law which 
these entail, while the assimilation of these practical 
features to the general theory of jurisprudence is so 
complete as not to perplex the decisions of the judg- 
es. So great were the difficulties at first found in 
adapting the present judicial system to general prac- 
tice, that the " Athena " declared on the 10th of Oc- 
tober, 1835, that many of the tribunals had not then 
given ten decisions, and points out the absolute ne- 
cessity of altering some of the existing arrange- 
ments. 

Some administrative measures were attempted dur- 
ing the Regency of Mr. Maurer, which excited more 
direct opposition than his general principles of legis- 
lation. One of these, adopted at the suggestion of 
the celebrated Maurocordatos, then secretary of state 
for the Finances, illustrates admirably the feeling of 
the government and the state of the country. As 
early as the month of May, 1833, it sowed those seeds 
of distrust against the intentions of their rulers 
among the Greek people, which no subsequent meas- 
ures have tended to eradicate. This occasion was 
seized by the factions of representing how incompat- 
ible a government which has no common feelings 
with the people — whether Bavarian or Fanariate — 
must be with the true interests of liberated Greece. 
The Regency, at the suggestion of Maurocordatos 
(whose head, ever full of schemes, seems to have 
been anxious to place the Regency in such a position 
6* 



66 



THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 



that they could not have proceeded without his assist- 
ance,) thought fit to rake up an old Mahommedan 
law, as much at variance with the actual practice of 
European Turkey as with the principles of justice. 
With this Arabic text (evidently conceived in Arabia 
deserta)in his hand, he persuaded the Regency of the 
eastern America, which it was so eager to colonize, 
that all the land in Greece, not actually under cultiva- 
tion, could be declared the property of the state. As 
minister of Finance, he issued a circular in which the 
following memorable words are contained : — "that 
every spot where wild herbs fit for the pasturage of 
cattle grow, is national property ; " and that the 
Greek government, like the Sublime Porte, recog- 
nizes the principle " that no property in the soil, ex- 
cept the exclusive right of cultivation, can be legally 
vested in a private individual." * This extraordinary 
attempt to govern according to the legislative princi- 
ples of "a horde of Asiatic barbarians encamped in 
Europe," and to enact a law by means of a ministeri- 
al circular was made in direct violation of the laws 
of Greece and the rights of private property, which 
even the Ottoman Government had for nearly four 
centuries uniformly respected. The attempt to en- 
force this circular, by seizing all the pasturage, crea- 
ted such a ferment in the country that the measure 
was silently withdrawn ; but the suspicion that the 
Greek government considered itself the legal heir to 

* When Maurocordatos wrote this specimen of diplomacy, in 
legislation, he must have forgotten Talleyrand's instructions to the 
young diplomat. Et surtout, Monsieur, point de zele. 



AND THE GREEK NATION. 67 

the Sultan, and would add European and Fanariate 
chicane to assist their pretensions, created a general 
feeling of the insecurity of landed property which 
subsequent measures have too often tended to aug- 
ment. The immediate effect of this attempt to ren- 
der the state the sole proprietor of the soil, while all 
the population of the country were calling out for its 
distribution, may easily be conceived. The warlike 
population of Romelia, chiefly engaged in pastoral 
occupations, was on the eve of taking up arms, and 
was, indeed, only prevented by the sudden arrestation 
of its principal leaders. 

Avarice, and the ambition of the success of play- 
ing the civil Pizarro or Cortes, easily explains the 
ideas of the inexperienced statesmen who thought to 
seize the soil of Greece ; but it is to this day difficult 
to conjecture what motive could have induced the 
Regency to engage in their rash attack on the moun- 
taineers of Maina. The pretext was an order to de- 
stroy all towers or houses which could be converted 
into defensive buildings. Now, as almost every house 
in Maina is a tower with a stone staircase communi- 
cating with a door in the second story by means of 
a moveable platform, this order was pretty nearly 
equal to an invitation to the wealthier classes in Ma- 
ina to lodge inthe open air. Is it to be wondered at 
that the Mainotes preferred defying the government to 
tamely su bruiting to be treated like wild beasts. Yet, 
at this very time, the Mainotes were extremely anxious 
to quit their barren mountains, and were desirous to 
settle on the uncultivated national lands, in the plain 



68 THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 

of Messenia ; and it would have been easy to have ren- 
dered them firm friends of the government, and use- 
ful subjects, instead of converting them into the de- 
stroyers of the Bavarian power in Greece. The 
Bavarian troops sent to put in force the decree were 
every where defeated, and their military reputation 
in the opinion of the Greeks was completely destroy- 
ed, by the manner in which many of them laid down 
their arms. Indeed it required the most extraordi- 
nary ignorance of the country and the people, to 
suppose that the small number of troops which 
could be sent against the Mainotes could make any 
impression on that numerous and warlike population, 
flushed with the recollection of their victories over 
the numbers of Ibrahim Pasha. 

When the Regency in these important measures 
displayed such neglect of the national spirit, it is not 
to be supposed that their general administration was 
characterized by any feelings of justice towards the 
Greeks ; and, accordingly, numerous measures daily 
augmented the existing discontent. Orders were at 
one time sent to all the principal towns in Greece to 
prevent the construction of houses until the plans of 
the respective towns should be examined and ap- 
proved of by this omni-law-giving trio. We shall 
not weary our readers with many details. At Patras 
the indemnifications promised by Capodistrias in 
1829, in tracing the existing town have not yet been 
paid, while in express violation of the conditions on 
which the principal street towards the sea was built, 
the Government had lately sold the ground between 



AND THE GREEK NATION. 



69 



their front and the beach as building ground. At 
Athens it was decided to excavate one half of the 
town, in order to search for antiquities, though it was 
calculated by a French Engineer that the expense 
would exceed the excavation of Pompeii. The pro- 
prietors of the houses in the district marked out for 
this purpose were for two years prevented from com- 
pleting them, even when half finished. At length 
the Government, suddenly changing its mind, and 
without any public communication, commenced 
building a large barrack in the middle of the ruins of 
Hadrian's library, exactly in the spot where excava- 
tions were likely to be most successful, and filled up 
that part of the enclosure near Lord Elgin's tower 
with ten feet of new rubbish. The contrast of this 
act with the long decree in the twenty-second number 
of the second volume of the Greek Gazette, on the 
preservation of antiquities, though it may be very 
amusing to the people of London and Munich, is 
death to the poor sufferers at Athens. 

In enumerating the follies of this period of the 
Regency, we are not unwilling to do ample justice to 
its merits, and do not forget that the most liberal 
and enlightened measure of any foreign statesmen in 
Greece, and which wants only a more direct adapta- 
tion to actual exigencies in the rural communes, to 
be the Magna Carta of Grecian liberty, was framed 
by Messrs. Maurer and Abel. We mean the law 
establishing the municipal and communal govern- 
ments. This law,* which found a corresponding 

* Greek Gazette, Vol. 2, No. 3, 22d January, 1834. 



70 THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 

institution based in the usages of the country, was 
immediately understood and fairly appreciated by the 
Greeks, and will long be regarded as a proof of the 
real desire of its authors to establish a rational sys- 
tem of government and of their capacity to do so, 
when they could keep their minds from the alluring 
charms of irresponsible power. This excellent law 
has however been most shamefully neglected, and is 
not yet carried into execution, nor are all the com- 
munes formed even in the province of Attica, though 
the result of the system has been found most benefi- 
cial in all those communes which have been hitherto 
allowed to elect their own magistrates. Indeed the 
enlightened Greeks look more to this system for the 
permanent improvement of their country and for the 
introduction of a national system of education, than 
to the general government ; and it is with deep re- 
gret that they see the present Chancellor allow every 
impediment to be thrown in the way of this law, 
merely because it is considered to reflect high honor 
on his political antagonists, and frequently calls forth 
a few words from the public press in their praise ; 
which he is too apt to consider as a satire on his own 
neglect and indolence. 

About this time, a bureau of statistics and political 
economy was made to figure in the newspapers, as 
one of the new institutions of Greece, though it had 
long; since died a natural death. The ordinance es- 
tablishing it is a curious specimen of legislation de 
qmni scibili* For instance, the Engineer officers 

* Greek Gazette, Vol. 2. No. 18. date of decree 11 May, 1834 ; 
of publication 3 June. It consists of 50 articles. 



AND THE GREEK NATION. 71 

of the French expedition in the Morea had com- 
pleted an excellent map of the Peloponnesus, and the 
French Government had sent to Greece 100 copies ; 
yet, without any allusion to this, the decree calmly 
orders this expensive and difficult undertaking to be 
recommenced, in a country which had been unable 
to procure at that time a dozen plans of petty towns, 
and all this preparatory only to a special survey of 
the whole kingdom. Clauses are inserted about ge- 
ology, mines, roads, internal navigation and canals. ! ! ! 
The very idea of forming canals in a country where 
there are not rive rivers, in which it is possible for 
children to amuse themselves by sailing boats, during 
the months of August and September, proves the 
exact knowledge of the country which was at this 
epoch necessary to make a legislator. The extreme 
breadth of the country, maybe seventy-five miles, and 
there are at least a dozen separate mountains, whose 
height exceed six thousand feet. 4 In such a country, 
this decree orders it to be examined, whether it will 
be more economical to establish a system of canaliza- 
tion, or continue the construction of the roads already 



Psan - - - 1804 

Saita - - - - 1813 

In Roumely. 

Ghiona - - - 2525 

Vardhusi (Korax) 2500 

Parnassus - - 2460 

Velouchi (Tymphrestus) 2300 

Oeta - - - 2120 

Helicon is only - 1750 



In the Morea. 


Metres. 


Taygetus 


2409 


Cyllene 


2370 


Khelmos 


2355 


Olenos 


2224 


Dourdouvana 


2112 


Maleno 


1958 


Skhipieza 


1936 


Voidhia 


1927 


Crathis 


1875 



72 THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 

decided on. All this really puts us in mind of the 
story of the Queen of France, recommending the 
poor to eat pie-crust when bread was dear. 

When Count Armansperg, obtained the entire di- 
rection of public affairs, this wild system of legisla- 
tion had already sowed the seeds of rebellion in the 
Morea. And he was so alarmed and confounded, 
by this very natural result of his colleagues conduct, 
that he abandoned, in a fit of timidity, the entire di- 
rection of the measures necessary to repress this re- 
bellion, to Mr. Koletti, who was then secretary of 
state for the interior, supposing, probably, that as he 
from his office, must have possessed perfect knowl- 
edge of the means by which things had been con- 
ducted to this unhappy situation, he was the likeliest 
man to discover means of running back by the short- 
est road. Koletti, who is a man of talent, soon suc- 
ceeded, and is said to have been viewed with no fa- 
vorably eye ever since. 

The immediate cause of this insurrection, was an 
awkward attempt to change the manner in which the 
tenths of the gross produce of the land are collected 
as a land tax. It appears to be the general opinion 
of all those who are unconnected with the farming 
of the revenues, that it will be extremely difficult, and 
even dangerous, to attempt any change of the Turkish 
system, except by the amelioration of its details, un- 
til capital is more abundant in Greece, the interest of 
money lower, and a readier market can be found for 
produce in the provinces.* It is well known that all 

* Yet this has been attempted this year, 1S36. 



AND THE GREEK NATION. 73 

the dangers of the proposed measure were pointed out 
to the then Secretary of Finance in Greece ; but the 
young man who held that post, had no knowl- 
edge beyond what can be acquired at public lectures 
in the University of Leipsic. The consequences of 
his paying more attention to his studies in Germany, 
than to the practice of the world in Greece, were the 
devastation of part of the Morea, a direct expense of 
2,000,000 of drachmas (£70,000 stg.) in the expens- 
es of the campaign, and a loss of double that sum in 
the destruction of property. At length it was per- 
ceived, even by the secretary of Finance, that under 
his provisions of his sales of the tenths, the farmers 
had contrived to extract from the cultivators eighteen 
to twenty per cent, instead of ten, and on the national 
lands forty to fifty instead of twenty-five. The law, 
like so many others, was soon abandoned, but not 
till Koletti had compelled Armansperg to employ a 
number of irregular troops, in the suppression of the 
revolt, and thus force the government into the first 
national step which it had taken ; a step, however, 
nearly as impolitic as national. 

After the suppression of this rebellion, the attention 
of the Regency was occupied in preparing for the re- 
moval, or in removing the government from Nauplia 
to Athens ; an important event, which engaged the 
whole attention of the rulers of Greece, from the end 
of the month of September 1834, until the following 
February. During this period, after a vain attempt 
to imbibe some Attic salt, an abortive essay was 
made to open three streets in the new capital. The 
7 



74 THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 

evidence of success is likely to be long visible in the 
trapezoidal form of the few houses which adorn the 
streets. Even the Government Gazette, the organ 
through which the applauses of Germany had been 
hitherto secured by the literary activity of its preced- 
ing members, was now forgotten by the Regency, and 
the decrees from the month of May, that is, the pub- 
lic legislation of Greece, from the month of May, was 
not printed or published, until the following Septem- 
ber. The President of the Regency doubtless has 
adopted, as a state maxim, that excellent Spanish 
proverb, " Haste cometh from the Devi J." 

Some have attempted to explain, and others to 
apologize for this extraordinary stupor, by asserting 
that it was caused by the intrigues of General Hei- 
deck, and Mr. Greiner, a Bavarian financier, who 
seems, however, never to have given any other signs 
of life in Greece. While many even say that Count 
Armansperg was afraid to act, lest his measures 
should be thwarted by the influence of Koletti. Sub- 
sequent experience, ! however, has shown, that it is by 
no means necessary to seek such distant causes of a 
lethargy which seems habitual. 

At length, on the 1st of June, 1835, the wished-for 
day of the majority of King Otho arrived, and to the 
delight of the inhabitants of Greece, the Regency 
ceased to exist. In taking leave of it, it is lamentable 
to reflect on the total waste of time which marked its 
conduct, both under Mr. Maurer's period of legisla- 
tive activity, and Count Armansperg's reign of pub- 
lic lethargy, and private intrigue. Not one single 



AND THE GREEK NATION. 75 

national measure had been carried into execution. 
Half the published laws had never been attempted 
to be enforced, and of the remaining half, great part 
had been discovered injurious or impracticable, on 
the first attempts to put them in practice. It is not, 
therefore, to be wondered at, that the Greeks should 
have felt the sincerest joy at the termination of a 
Government which had so completely neglected all 
national questions and interests ; and the order and 
tranquillity which generally existed in the country 
must be received as evidence of the profound attach- 
ment of the people to the pursuits of honest industry, 
when the smallest hopes are held out of their being 
able to enjoy the fruits of their labors ; and a proof 
that they were infinitely more attached to the real 
interests of Greece and more capable of pursuing 
them, than their rulers. 

Ou the first of June, 1835, a new era was expected 
to commence in Greece, and the popularity and 
amiable personal qualities of the young monarch who 
assumed the reins of government were certain to 
secure him the honest support of the whole nation, 
and their fullest patience, while he carried into exe- 
cution all those national measures which his minis- 
ters had hitherto neglected, and which were becoming 
every day more necessary to the permanent tran- 
quillity of the state. His first act was one of modera- 
tion and wisdom. He entrusted the entire formation 
of his ministry to Count Armansperg, who, of all 
the foreigners then in Greece, was distinguished by 
the temperance of his views, and who, from having 



76 THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 

presided over the Regency for more than two years, 
must have been supposed to possess some knowledge 
of the Greeks and of Greece. Count Armansperg 
was perhaps the only Bavarian who was at that time 
popular in Greece, and he was known to be strongly 
supported by the British Cabinet. The choice of 
the monarch was ratified by the nation, but the sat- 
isfaction was of very short duration ; for the Count, 
unable to lay down the sweets of power, named him- 
self Arch Chancellor of Greece, with all the attributes 
of sole executive minister ; and from that day until 
now, no Greek ministry has been formed — no cab- 
inet has been assembled, and the imperfect adminis- 
tration has generally been from three to six depart- 
ments entrusted to a single Secretary of State, who 
communicates with the Chancellor's office on public 
business, rarely with the Chancellor himself, and 
almost never with the monarch. The imprudence 
of this attempt to make " the prince a pageant and 
the people nothing," is as great as the act itself is un- 
just, illegal, and according to the acknowledged laws 
of Greece, criminal.* 

The first act of Count Armansperg's power as sole 
director of the Regency had been to send troops to 

* The members of the Cabinet now, are — Count Armansperg, 
who speaks no Greek. Mr. Troy, royal councillor, neither Greek 
nor French. Mr. Rizo, minister of the royal household, foreign 
affairs, justice, religion, and public instruction, no German. Gen- 
eral Schmaltz speaks no Greek at least. Admiral Kriezi, neither 
German nor French. Mr. Mausolas, interior, all the languages 
known to the others. The finances are in commendum, but the di- 
rector speaks all the languages known to his colleagues. 



AND THE GREEK NATION. 77 

quell the rebellion in Messenia ; his first act, as Arch 
Chancellor of Greece, was to dispatch an expedition 
under General Gordon, to suppress the system of 
brigandage, which had arrived at an alarming head 
in Etolia and Acarnania, and along the line of the 
northern frontier of the kingdom. This expedition 
had the immediate effect of securing the tranquillity 
of these provinces ; and had the able and energetic 
measures of this first and best of English Philhellenes 
been adopted, Greece would at this day have been 
in possession of national troops sufficient to have 
prevented the rebellion of Acarnania and Etolia in 
the spring of 1836, or rather the causes of that rebel- 
lion, which he so ably pointed out and so distinctly 
predicted, would have been removed, and the precip- 
itate assembly of irregular bands, whose very numbers 
are unknown to the government of the country, and 
many of whose officers were last year fighting against 
General Gordon, would not now have been necessary 
to preserve the Chancellor in his office. 

Count Armansperg soon discovered that in his 
new position he must make some concessions to pop- 
ular demands ; and, after long deliberation, he an- 
nounced the following four measures as on the eve 
of publication, on which he desired his friends to say, 
that he requested his reputation as a Statesman might 
rest. 

1. A law for the distribution of the national lands. 

2. The nomination of a Council of State. 

3. The establishment of a Phalanx, to be composed 
of the soldiers of the Revolutionary war. 

7* 



78 



THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 



4. The establishment of a Bank. 

The absolute necessity of all these measures was 
universally acknowledged. It only remains to ex- 
amine in what manner they have been carried into 
effect. It is needless to enter into any details con- 
cerning the nature of these measures, as the dis- 
cussion, to be of any value, must be far too long to be 
interesting at a distance from those whose interests 
are not immediately affected. We shall therefore 
only state their general results. 

Concerning the first we have only to say, that the 
provisions of the law of dotation, as the ordinance 
about the national land is termed, has had almost no 
effect at all ; for very few individuals have been wil- 
ling to accept land on the severe conditions which 
are imposed on inferior soils ; while the dotations 
which have really taken place, being of land of the 
best quality already cultivated and yielding a rent, 
are likely to cause a diminution of the national 
finances. Fortunately, however, for Greece, the 
complicated nature of the law has rendered it nearly 
nugatory for good or evil. 

With regard to the Council of State, we shall 
only remark that the members are well chosen, and 
though its present constitution renders it of no use 
at all, it might easily become an institution of great 
importance, both to the Crown and the nation. 

The necessity of some extensive measure in order 
to do justice to the soldiers of the revolution, and to 
secure a military force in Greece, seems to have led 
to the formation ot the Phalanx, and, subsequently, to 



AND THE GREEK NATION. 79 

the enrollment of five regiments of irregulars, under 
Griva, Giavella, Mamouri, Grigiotti, and Yasso, all 
distinguished Generals of the revolution. But with 
all this j Greece has no army and no organized mil- 
itary establishment of any value, regular or irregular, 
and the actual circumstances of the country will soon 
force the subject not only on the attention of states- 
men in Greece, but also on the protecting powers. 
The subject, however, is so complex a one, embraces 
so many interests, and requires the publicity of so 
many previous reports to ensure just measures and 
guard against the influence of party and personal 
prejudice, that, in the few words we could afford it, 
we are more likely to be misunderstood ourselves, 
than to throw any light on the subject. 

With reference to the establishment of the Bank, 
it is well known in England that the favorite plan of 
Count Armansperg was so crude that it was com- 
pletely rejected. An eminent London Banker, has 
however, since succeeded, in concert with the Greek 
Government, in arranging a Charter which while it 
will afford the most liberal assistance to the Greeks 
on the most moderate terms, will secure to the cap- 
italists an extensive field of operation for their capital 
and the amplest security for their advances.* 

* The author of this pamphlet having published an Essai sur les 
principes de banque applique's a Vetat actuel de la Grece at Athens in 
opposition to the Count's scheme, has beheld with pleasure that all 
his principles are adopted in the new charter with a liberality to- 
wards Greece, which, while it reflects honor on the Banker who 
prepared it, proves, what he asserted to the Greeks, that the real 
permanent interest of borrowers and lenders in Banking are insep- 
arable. 



80 THE HELLENIC KINGDOM. 

The four great measures, on which the Arch 
Chancellor of Greece has himself requested that his 
reputation may rest, have now been before the public 
for nearly a year, and we refer it to the decision of 
others, if they have tended, in any degree, or are 
likely to tend, to advance the prosperity of the 
country, unless they are entirely new modelled on 
the institutions and usages of Greece, by the people 
of Greece. 



[81] 



CHAPTER IV. 



VIEW OF THE ACTUAL CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY 
AND THE MEANS OF ITS IMPROVEMENT. 



Even the passing traveller who visits Greece, will 
soon be convinced, that it is a country in a progres- 
sive state of improvement. In spite of the troubles 
of Tinos, the war of Maina, the rebellion of Messe- 
nia, the robbers on the frontiers, the expedition of 
last year, and the rebellion of the present; the greater 
part of the country is rapidly passing into a more or- 
ganized and social state of society. Numerous vil- 
lages and hamlets have already risen from their 
ruins, fields of grain now wave, and flocks and herds 
now pasture, in spots where, three years ago, there 
were hardly any vestiges of cultivation. Considera- 
ble capital has also been laid out, in building in the 
principal towns. Still, there is a general complaint, 
that the Government does nothing to aid this prog- 
ress, and that all this amelioration has been achiev- 
ed by the industry of individuals, striving against 
many impediments, which it was all along in the 



82 THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 

power of the Government to remove, even without 
descending from its proper sphere of action. 

The most important measure of domestic policy, 
connected with the progress of Greece, is the con- 
version of the national lands, by some tenure or 
other, into private property. The chief basis of any 
rapid improvement in a new country, (and we believe 
we may apply this significant phrase to this very old 
one,) must always be in the advancement of agricul- 
tural industry, as the surest step towards an increas- 
ing population. Now, the first step towards the im- 
provement of agriculture, is the security of property, 
and the first step towards the security of property, is 
the existence of the proprietors. The second step, 
towards a firm guarantee for the security of property, 
must be sought in the moral qualities of the proprie- 
tors : the foundation of the first step depends solely 
on the government ; and when the government shall 
have done its duty, it is generally easy to find pro- 
prietors, who have sense and spirit enough to fulfil 
theirs. 

To illustrate the extreme importance of this sub- 
ject in Greece, and to show how closely the national 
prosperity is connected with it, and how immediately 
it might be affected by it, we shall mention the state 
of a numerous body of the population of the Hellen- 
ic Kingdom. Great part of the agricultural laborers 
are not subjects of the new state, but natives of Epi- 
rus, Thessaly, and the Ionian islands. Many of the 
wealthiest shepherds, and most of the masons and 
carpenters, are Turkish subjects, During the last 



AND THE GREEK NATION. 83 

three years, the laborers and workmen in Greece, 
have been earning very high wages ; not one quar- 
ter of which, from their frugal way of living, they 
have consumed for food.* The other three quarters 
have been carried out of the country by these work- 
men, in their annual winter visit to their families, 
and has either been spent in their support, in the pur- 
chase of clothing which these men always bring new 
from their own country, where it is cheaper than in 
Greece, or in extending the cultivation, and amelio- 
rating the condition of Turkish villages. Out of a 
capital of twenty millions of drachmas, (£715,000,) 
which has been expended at Athens and the Piraeus, 
it is conjectured, that ten millions have, in this way. 
been withdrawn from the national circulation, and 
have yielded no further profit to the community, by 
their expenditure, than the annual profit derived by 
their employers. Now, if this sum had continued to 
circulate in the kingdom, by being expended in new 
production by those who received it as wages, it may 
easily be conceived, how rapidly it must have ope- 
rated in augmenting the wealth and improving the 
resources of the country. 

The great annual expenditure caused by the loca- 
tion of the population and the reconstruction of so 

* Wages in Greece are now, on an average, 2 drachmas for agri- 
cultural laborers ; Masons and Carpenters from 2 to 4 a day. A 
bushel of wheat costs at Athens 4 1-2 drachmas ; barley, 2 1-2; maize 
about the same. The drachma is about 8 l-2d, that is, six to a 
Spanish dollar. There are parts of Greece, where day labor is at 
one drachma, and wheat at three drachmas the bushel. 



84 THE HELLENIC KINGDOM. 

many towns and villages has now nearly ceased, and 
the numbers of the foreign workmen being dimin- 
ished, and all their wages having disappeared, what 
might easily have been anticipated, has occurred. 
There is a general stagnation of business. While 
this state of things was staring government in the 
face, it was more than once called upon to examine, 
whether it were not possible to adopt some measures 
to retain this capital, and induce these workmen to 
settle in the country. It was all in vain ; the case 
had not been foreseen in the lectures on political 
economy, of any professor, from Liege to Dorpat. 
One definite measure, which seemed likely to com- 
bine both these results, was thrown out for the con- 
sideration of government. As this measure was in 
perfect harmony with the avowed policy of govern- 
ment, and even, if not successful, could be attended 
with no evil consequences, it remains to this day to 
be explained, why it was not attempted to be carried 
into execution. It was proposed to commence selling 
small lots of building-ground, with wells and ruined 
houses, in those towns to which the greatest num- 
bers of the foreign workmen resorted. Bargains of 
this nature, holding out hopes of great profit from 
the employment of small sums of money, would have 
probably induced many of the strangers to become 
proprietors. Even if the purchaser should have been 
unable or unwilling to remove his family to Greece, 
the circumstance of his possessing property in the 
country, would have established a degree of connec- 
tion, which would have led to continual visits. A 



AND THE GREEK NATION. o5 

very short time would have sufficed to show to his 
fellow-citizens, whether property was more secure and 
more burdened with taxes, in the Hellenic Kingdom, 
or in Turkey ; and if the question had been decided 
in favor of Greece, many would have been induced 
to follow the example. The foundation would have 
thus been laid for an immigration highly advantage- 
ous to liberated Greece, an intercourse, from which 
she was likely ultimately to secure an influx of the 
two things she stands in most need of, — capital and 
inhabitants. At the same time, such a connection 
as this would be the most effectual means of extend- 
ing the influence of Greece over the opinions of the 
Greek rayahs, and of directing their attention to 
the progress of the Greek kingdom. That it would 
have been attended with considerable success, we 
have been assured by several respectable Greek sub- 
jects of Turkey, who, in visiting Greece, have regret- 
ted the difficulties in the way of purchasing property 
in the country. 

A second measure of equal importance in improv- 
ing the state of the country, and which might have 
been rendered the means of raising a large capital 
for an hypothetic loan fund, was the sale of lots of 
national land in the immediate vicinity of those vil- 
lages and towns which are chiefly private property, 
and which possess a wealthy peasantry. That there 
are a few such cases even in Greece, may be easily 
understood, from the fact of there being villages in 
the richest parts of the country, which are private 
property, while those around are national. The first 
8 



86 



THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 



paying only ten per cent, of land tax, and the second 
twenty-five, it is evident, that where these live, those 
must grow wealthy in a few years. There is also 
proof of this being actually the case, as the small 
portions of land which are accidentally offered for 
sale in these favored situations, generally bring 
twenty years purchase as their price. Government, 
however, determinedly refused to enter into examin- 
ation of details on this subject, asserting that every 
possible evil, whether already in existence, or which, 
by the varying combination of circumstances can be 
called into existence, is provided for, by the general 
measures adopted in the law of dotation. 

Indeed, such supineness prevailed on all practical 
subjects connected with the welfare of Greece, that 
great numbers of respectable Sciotes, Samians, and 
Cretans, who intended to settle in the country, have 
quitted it and returned to their respective islands.* 
The necessity of establishing colonies in Greece, 
had been continually spoken of, and Count Armans- 
perg had, himself, been engaged for at least a year, 
in drawing up a law on this subject ; but it was at 
last discovered, that the project of making a German 
America of Greece, required the "consent of the in- 
habitants, and that such consent was not very likely 

* Any publicity on these subjects, would doubtless awaken the 
government, but it denies facts unless they are published in an offi- 
cial form. Let a return be made of the numbers of the Greeks 
who have quitted the country with property for Turkey, and one 
of the Greeks and strangers who have brought property to the 
country, and attention be paid to the balance both in numbers and 
property. 



AND THE GREEK NATION. 87 

to be accorded even to the benevolent Count. The 
fond and long cherished expectation of founding a 
colony which should avoid all the faults of the Eng- 
lish colonial system, and give, as was expected, an 
active expression to the feelings of the civilization of 
the nineteenth century was abandoned. The Greeks 
showing no anxiety that these fine expressions 
should be carried into practice at their, expense. 
They were ready to give a hospitable reception to 
foreigners who would pay their own way, but they 
objected, as they themselves express it, that any man 
should learn to shave on their heads. 

It would be unfair to pass over the subject of Col- 
onies, without stating what has actually been per- 
formed. Much has been said and published about 
colonies of Ipsariots, Macedonians, and Epirots. An 
Ipsariote colony, of some thirty families, has actually 
been established amidst the ruins of Eretria, and 
government has contributed to its existence, not 
much certainly to its prosperity, by a donation of 
ten acres of a poor soil in the neighborhood, to each 
family. A colony of Macedonians is on the eve of 
formation at Atalanta, in a richer plain and under 
equally liberal auspices. And when the situation of 
the Epirot colony is decided on, and the colonists 
found, government will be equally liberal to them. 
In the mean time thousands of families have been re- 
duced to poverty, waiting in expectation of being able 
to settle on the waste national lands. 

* * * They have tried 
What hell it is in suing long to bide. 



88 THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 

As the emigration of Europeans to Greece has 
been sometimes recommended, it may perhaps be 
worth while to state the reasons which are generally- 
considered in the country, as conclusive against its 
success. The fact, which we have already men- 
tioned, that there is a numerous population of Greeks 
in Turkey, speaking the language, accustomed to 
the climate, and skilled in the usual modes of in- 
dustry now practised, and who at present visit the 
country as laborers with little expense and loss of 
time, shows that foreigners of the lower orders have 
very little chance of competing with them. The 
difficulty of purchasing small portions of land at 
reasonable prices, precludes the immigration of farm- 
ers and small capitalists, whose own labor would be 
a considerable part of their capital. And now, the 
establishment of the National Bank will render it a 
wiser and safer plan for large capitalists to invest 
their money in it, than to select themselves the means 
of employing it, unless they have long experience of 
the country and inhabitants. Still there is a class of 
persons who may find Greece a place of agreeable 
and profitable retirement. To those who possess 
small fortunes, (from four to ten thousand pounds) 
and who wish to enjoy the advantages of that little 
society which a capital of 15,000 inhabitants affords, 
with that mental refinement which so small a fortune 
could with difficulty procure in any other part of 
Europe, Athens offers some advantages. To such 
persons to whom the climate may be agreeable, and 
who intend to make a long residence, profitable 



AND THE GREEK NATION. 



89 



means of employing their capital would be easily- 
found. 

The commerce of Greece has not made the same 
rapid progress during the last three years, as the 
agriculture ; and it at present suffers very severely 
from the general stagnation of business. It is proba- 
ble that much might be done to remove this ; but 
Governments in general do so little but harm by 
meddling with commercial legislation, that the Greek 
government would do well to lay down the rule of 
confining itself as much as possible to the removal 
of impediments, to the extension of commerce, where 
they are found to exist. We regret extremely to see 
that she has already began to depart from that sound- 
est of all financial principles — never to impose any 
duty which is not for the purpose of raising a rev- 
enue. — She has lately imposed a duty on the im- 
portation of foreign grain. At present, the minimum 
import duty on commerce is one of ten per cent, ad 
valorem, levied on the valuation made at the Greek 
custom-house ; and the export duty is one of six 
per cent. As long, therefore, as the export and im- 
port duties of Turkey continue at three per cent., 
there can be little doubt that a very extensive smug- 
gling trade must be carried on in a country which 
possesses such a line of coast, and such numerous 
islands as Greece ; and it is probable that the revenue 
would gain considerably by a diminution of this duty. 

There is an ordinance * relating to the shipping 

* November 23, 1833. 



90 



THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 



interest of Greece, which appears to us highly im- 
politic, and likely to inflict more serious moral injury 
on the country than what could flow from the mere 
loss of revenue. By it, all foreign capital is excluded 
from employment in Greek vessels, and all foreign 
flags are shut out from the carrying trade of Greece. 
We shall not offer any observation on the general 
policy of such laws : it is with reference to the Arch- 
ipelago alone, that we intend to examine its effects on 
the real interests of Greece. As far as Turkey is 
concerned, it is likewise a departure from the princi- 
ples of reciprocity, or the present fashionable system 
of commercial legislation, the doctrine of tit for tat. 
The Turks allow Greeks to be part owners of ves- 
sels under the Turkish flag, and permit Greek boats 
to engage in the coasting trade of their islands ; and 
even if they were to prohibit it, in their progress to- 
wards European civilization, the Government of 
liberated Greece ought not to forget, that the Turk- 
ish bottoms which would engage in their carrying 
trade are all owned by Greeks, and that the aug- 
mentation of vessels in this situation would only tend 
ultimately to secure the union of the country of the 
proprietors to the new state, by a community of in- 
terests. And in strict justice, do not the sacrifices of 
the Sciots, Ispariots, and Samiots, in the cause of 
Greek independence, require that every thing should 
be done on the part of liberated Greece to alleviate 
their present lot?* It is not their fault, it is their 

* It may be asked, what does the present Government, Bavarians 
or Phanariotes know about the Greek revolution 1 We own, but 
little. 



AND THE GREEK NATION. 



91 



misfortune that they are now rayahs. The very idea, 
too, of excluding foreign capital from entering a 
country, where the rate of interest on commercial 
voyages of a fortnight is never less than two per 
cent, a month, and generally three, seems to argue an 
unnecessary alarm for the rapid increase of naviga- 
tion, and the speedy accumulation of capital, or else 
an unexampled sensitiveness on the decline of profits. 

It appears to us, that it would have merited the at- 
tention of the Greek government, to strive as much 
as possible, to amalgamate the interests of all the 
Greek nation with the prosperity of the Greek King- 
dom ; instead of seeking by this petty legislation, to 
awaken discussions, and create distinctions and op- 
position of interests, between the Greeks who are 
subjects of King Otho, and those who are subjects of 
Sultan Mahmoud. It is on such occasions as this, 
that the local knowledge and national feelings of an 
efficient Council of State, or of a legislative assembly 
would have been invaluable to King Otho, and saved 
his kingdom from the laws of pedantic ignorance. 
With what delight must Russia behold this powerful 
and wealthy body of rayahs driven to fix their eyes 
on her for protection, and how different will be her 
conduct towards the legacy which she has received 
from Greece ! 

We have thus pointed out two sources of which 
an intelligent government might have availed itself, 
and indeed might still avail itself, in some small de- 
gree, in order to exercise a moral influence over that 
part of the Greek nation still subject to Turkey, by 



92 



THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 



improving its condition, and binding it to the new- 
kingdom by ties of affection and personal interest. 
Means, too, which are so scarcely found without vio- 
lating that great rule, which ought always to direct a 
government, of never meddling with the affairs of the 
people, except when the business requiring interfer- 
ence, falls strictly within the exclusive province of 
the general administration. 

We are now compelled to allude to a subject which 
we would willingly have passed over, had it not been 
more necessary than any other fact we have yet men- 
tioned, to convey an exact idea of the feelings which 
regulate the conduct of the present administration of 
Greece, and of the sentiments with which that ad- 
ministration must of necessity be viewed by the peo- 
ple at large. Undue favor in political and militLry 
promotions, honors and money taken or given as re- 
wards of political intrigue or subserviency, are so cer- 
tainly the invariable consequence of the absence of 
responsibility and publicity in public business, that, 
though they excite dissatisfaction in the higher classes 
of society, they are generally disregarded by the mass 
of the nation. There is one subject, however, on 
which the poor and the rich feel alike, and where 
the deadliest opposition may be created by the small- 
est violation of justice. All feel that the social con- 
tract is invaded, the first bonds of society rent asun- 
der, and the continuance of the union of its members 
rendered dependent on force alone. This crisis in 
society, is produced by the deliberate violation of the 
rights of property. Now, that such a systematical 



AND THE GREEK NATION. 93 

violation of the rights of property has taken place in 
Greece, whenever' the pettiest interest of the gov- 
ernment has prompted, is felt through the whole 
country. 

We have instanced the violation of a solemn con- 
tract at Patras. In the capital, however, direct seiz- 
ures of property occur daily. If a palace, a mint, a 
printing-office, a stable, or a public nuisance is to be 
established, or a colony to be founded, the property of 
individuals is seized, without even the formality of 
informing the proprietors, whose very landmarks 
are thus lost.* A plan of the town of Athens was 
adopted by royal ordinance, and it was declared that 
Government would take the land appropriated in that 
plan for public buildings, at the rate of £30 an acre 
within six months. Under the guarantee of this law, 
many individuals purchased land in the environs of 
the actual town at £150, and £200 an acre. Yet 
Government has now annulled the contract, and 
insisted that it is entitled to select any piece of land 
for public purposes, at the rate of £30 an acre. As 
the inhabitants have protested against this, and as it 
is known that a foreign consul, whose property had 
been seized in this way, succeeded in making advan- 
tageous private arrangements with the government, 
no payments of any kind have yet been made, and 
government has remained nearly two years in pos- 
session of land for which nothing has ever been paid. 

* We refer Count Armansperg to his Bible. Deut. c. xix. 14. 
Thou shalt not remove thy neighbor's land-mark, which they of old 
time have set in thine inheritance. 



94 



THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 



The late seizure of the land of an American religious 
mission, and a Russian consul general, may perhaps 
bring matters to a crisis, and compel Count Armans- 
perg to adopt some measures, less at variance with 
the principles of justice than his former conduct. 
Can he, who is said to have shared the enthusiastic 
scheme of making Greece a second America, serious- 
ly believe that " the country beyond the Atlantic, 
where now a younger Europe flourishes," reached 
her present unexampled wealth, glory and happiness, 
by such principles as he acts on. 

There now remains one important way, in which 
the moral influence of liberated Greece may be very 
extensively, though indirectly, beneficial in improv- 
ing the condition of that part of the nation still under 
a foreign domination, to which we may allude. It 
is well known, that the subject of Education has ex- 
cited great attention among the better classes in 
Greece. The most popular of the Greek newspapers, 
the Athena, is filled with discussions on this subject ; 
and many of the villages and towns of liberated 
Greece, even before the constitution of their com- 
munes, have built and endowed public schools, A 
strong desire for education pervades every class of 
society. Here, then, a field is opened to the govern- 
ment, of exerting the most powerful and beneficial 
influence on the whole Greek nation. The estab- 
lishment of a University in the Hellenic Kingdom, 
on the plan of those of Germany, with those provis- 
ions for exact discipline amongst the members which 
the circumstances may be found to require, would 



AND THE GUEEK NATION* 95 

not only be of great advantage to liberated Greece, 
but would also tend to create and disseminate a com- 
munity of feeling wherever the Greek language is 
spoken. The formation of a public library which 
would afford means for students even of mature age 
to pursue their studies, and the endowments of a 
special college for Theological studies, are loudly 
called for, by the demand for schoolmasters and edu- 
cated priests in all the provinces of Greece, and Tur- 
key. Would not this truly National undertaking 
better warrant the expenditure of the loan, than the 
journey of a Bavarian architect, to make a new plan ot 
Athens, or than the excavation of the Acropolis, the 
rebuilding of the Parthenon, the building of a mint, 
or a transit warehouse, and the maintenance of a 
regiment of lancers, or a military school ? * At 
present, the establishments for education are trifling, 
though, from the number of able Professors, little is 
wanting, but that Government should provide the 
necessary buildings, and furnish the means which 
depend on it, in order to form a nourishing Uni- 
versity. 

The success of a University in Greece, would un- 

* Our reasons are these ; the plan of the architect has been re- 
jected ; the expenses of the excavation, render the price paid for 
the antiquities found, excessive ; the Parthenon, if rebuilt, would not 
do for a University ; the mint is an object of luxury, as the money 
might be coined cheaper by contract ; the transit warehouse is al- 
ways empty, as Athens imports only for her own consumption ; the 
lancers on service, in the mountains of Greece, must leave their 
lances behind ; and we conceive civil education is of far more im- 
portance lhan military, and ought to take precedency. 



96 THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 

questionably be most brilliant, and would reflect 
more lasting glory on the reign of King Otho, and 
enable him to exercise a wider influence over the 
Greek nation, than all the military and antiquarian 
establishments of his kingdom. No people can sup- 
ply a greater proportion of men, able and willing to 
fill the chairs of such an establishment. These 
professors would bring to their task an enthusiasm 
which would immediately find a responding feeling 
in the breasts of their pupils, and they would awaken 
an echo, which would be repeated through Europe 
and Asia, as far as Greek is a spoken language. 
Every Greek feels himself connected with the literary 
glory of his ancestors, and he would soon be proud 
of that of his contemporaries. The anxiety the 
Greeks feel about such an institution, and the eager- 
ness with which they would contribute to its pros- 
perity, is shown by the magnificent donations which 
many wealthy Greeks have already furnished in 
books and money. Yet, with all this disposition on 
the part of the people, the school-houses commenced 
by Capodistrius, are either left unfinished,* by the 
present government, or turned into barracks for the 
gens-d'armes.t 

It may here, perhaps, be justly observed, that all 
plans for the improvement of a country proposed by 
strangers, ought to be regarded with suspicion. The 
vanity of projecting, is too apt to lead the most phleg- 
matic and judicious to overrate the circumstances, 

* As at Corinth, and Megara. t As at Loidoriki, &c. 



AND THE GREEK NATION. 97 

which are favorable to their plans, and to overlook 
those which are unfavorable. Foreigners, even 
when they perfectly understand the language of a 
country, can generally no more acquire the feelings, 
than they can the exterior appearance of natives. 
Entertaining this opinion, we own we have looked 
with wonder at the proceedings of the European 
statesmen, who have established, in Greece, a form 
of administration, which compels the Greeks to seek 
for every improvement in the projects of foreigners, 
ignorant, even of the language and manners of the 
people. In a country issuing from a revolution, a 
foreigner is entrusted with the whole executive and 
legislative authority, unrestrained by the ties of nat- 
uralization, and unaided by any institution which 
can influence his conduct, according to the interests 
of the people whom he has been appointed to govern. 
In a country where the national institutions and hab- 
its of society had established feelings of the most 
democratic equality amongst all the subjects, a for- 
eigner is placed between the throne and the people, 
to separate the monarch from the nation, and to leave 
the throne supported only by the supposed talents of 
the Arch-chancellor. The very form of administra- 
tion which has invariably placed the governed and 
their governors in mortal opposition, and has been 
productive of more revolutions than any other known 
combination of power, is thus adopted with the sanc- 
tion of the three most enlightened powers in Europe, 
as the surest means of establishing tranquillity in 
Greece. We are irresistibly compelled to conjecture, 
9 



98 THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 

what can have been the ulterior projects of states- 
men who have departed so far from the lessons of 
practical wisdom. Can the English cabinet seriously 
think that their influence can maintain this state of 
things without the aid of British funds ; or are they 
prepared to come before parliament and ask more 
money to pursue their speculations in the art of 
Government? For our own parts, we venture to 
predict that a very short continuance of the present 
system will compel the Sovereign of Greece to call a 
national assembly, and deliver the country at the 
same time from the tutelage of the Chancellor and its 
other protectors. 

Such is the present threatening state of affairs in 
Greece. Let us inquire if it be not possible, by some 
means in perfect accordance with the existing insti- 
tutions of the Hellenic Monarchy, to organize the 
general administration of the kingdom in a manner 
which, while it immediately secures a due expression 
of popular opinion, will guarantee a stability of 
measures and consistency of political views which 
has been vainly sought for in the vacillating conduct 
of foreign Regents and Chancellors. In Greece, as 
in every country which possesses popular institutions 
such as we have already shown exist in her muni- 
cipal organization, no government can be perma- 
nent, which is not directly influenced by, and which 
does not move in constant accord with public opin- 
ion. At the same time, we are well aware that the 
machine of government must be so constructed as to 
ensure the expression of public opinion, without 



AND THE GREEK NATION. 99 

allowing the popular will to be the director of the 
executive power. That this can be permanently 
and securely done without the existence of a legis- 
lative assembly, and a complete and responsible min- 
istry we hold to be impossible. We conceive these 
to be the only sure guarantees of the stability of the 
Greek Monarchy, and we shall therefore ex'amine 
by what practical measures their formation can be 
facilitated. 

To proceed cautiously, the first change which 
must be made in actual administration, is, to create a 
machinery by which the institutions and usages of 
the Greeks can be made known to the government, 
and enabled to exert some influence on the actual 
legislation. We conceive this to be the first step 
towards good government ; as institutions and usages 
are far more powerful ever to direct a people than 
civil laws and political constitutions. That this may 
be done without any change in the individuals who 
now hold elevated situations, we think of importance, 
as we see that the change of individuals and names, 
is the present receipt proposed by reformers in 
Greece ; a receipt, which, whatever be the faults or 
virtues of individuals, is sure to be fallacious in a 
disorganized government. 

We suggest, therefore, that the present Council of 
State should be charged to prepare reports on every 
subject on which the government feels itself called 
upon to legislate, that these reports, signed by the 
members who draw them up, and supported when 
necessary by requisite evidence of facts should be 



100 THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 

published by the government, and on the 1 expression 
of public opinion which follows this publication, the 
ordinances of the government be prepared. If the 
present Council of State do not contain a sufficient 
number of persons able to do this work, it will be 
requisite to make the necessary addition to its num- 
ber. "We shall not plunge into any explanation of 
the details by which this system can be put into im- 
mediate execution ; we shall content ourselves with 
saying that the present system of preparing ordi- 
nances, and laws changing the institutions of the 
Kingdom, and taxing its inhabitants in the private 
room of the Arch-chancellor, and transmitting them 
to the present inefficient Council of State with an 
order to return them ratified in forty-eight hours, 
cannot endure much longer. Experience has shown 
that such laws are despised by the people, and rid- 
iculed by the employes of the state, as being inap- 
plicable to the state of the country in their details, 
even when founded on sound principles, and the 
maxim "qui oequum statuerit, parte inaudita altera, 
etiam si cequum statuerit, haud oequus merit," is as 
sound morality in legislation as in law. 

There is, however, one advantage which would 
result from this mode of referring the legislation of 
Greece to the present Council of State, which is 
likely to have more weight with the present dis- 
posers of affairs in that country, than the mere feel- 
ings of justice. They will, perhaps, begin to per- 
ceive that this is the only manner by which the ad- 
ministration can be prepared to meet a national 



AND THE GREEK NATION. 101 

assembly, and by which they can know what 
measures a national assembly would be likely to 
adopt, or by what means its votes and resolutions 
can be guided. The habits of business and public 
discussion as a means of advancing instead of retard- 
ing public affairs, can only be learnt by habit and 
experience, and the practice which the members of 
the Council of State would have in this way, would 
render them powerful in the national assembly to 
which many of them from their local influence and 
high character are sure to be returned. With regard 
to the necessity of calling together a national assem- 
bly, whatever may be its effect, we look upon it as 
at no very distant period, inevitable, and we consider 
it as indispensable towards laying the permanent 
foundations of the Greek monarchy. 

To conclude : we shall offer a few observations on 
the actual resources of the Kingdom, in order that a 
just comparison may be drawn between their extent 
and the political results which the Hellenic Kingdom 
has been expected to work out in the European re- 
public. The revenues of Greece are estimated at 
about £400,000 stg., and the population little above 
650,000 souls. The amount of taxation paid by 
each individual is therefore about 12s, 3fd sterling. 
The contribution of a family of five persons, amounts 
to £3. Is. 5f d ; which is a rate of taxation exceed- 
ing that of Sweden, Naples, Spain, and Ireland. 
This amount levied in a country so thinly peopled 
as Greece, where the price of grain is so low, and the 
expenses of transport are so very great, is worthy of 
9* 



102 THE HELLENIC KINGUOM 

careful observation on the part of those who specie 
late on the future prosperity of the country. Indeed 
it is evident that in a country which counts not more 
than 36 inhabitants to a square mile, no such amount 
of taxation could ever be levied, unless the rent of a 
great part of the cultivated land in the Kingdom 
were included in the sources of national revenue. 
We have already mentioned that Government pos- 
sesses great part of the Kingdom, and that Govern- 
ment property pays 15 per cent, more land tax than 
the property of private individuals. We fear that 
this rate of taxation is too high to allow of any per- 
manent or considerable increase in the wealth and 
population of the country. There is too little of the 
national land which is of a sufficiently good quality 
as to permit the cultivator to commence his opera- 
tions by the payment of twenty-five per cent, of the 
gross produce, with the contingent burden of being 
compelled, according to the present law, to transport 
that twenty-five per cent, to a distance of six hours. 
The cultivation of land in Greece is not likely to be 
much extended or the population augmented until 
some change takes place in this law. Indeed, in 
general the government of Greece does not appear 
to be sensible that the resources of the country can 
be seriously augmented only by that part of the 
national income which is left in the pockets of the 
people : it is too much employed in endeavoring to 
turn the national resources into its own pockets, 
where they are spent, if not lavishly, at least unpro- 
ductively. This fact, that hardly any fund remains 



AND THE GREEK NATION. 103 

to the people for improving their condition, suffi- 
ciently explains the reason of the comparatively slow- 
progress made by the Greek peasants, when compared 
with the population of other new countries.* 

The annual expenditure of Greece has hitherto 
amounted to about £650,000, exceeding the revenue 
by about £250,000. Of this sum the army has ab- 
sorbed about £390,000, within £10,000 of the whole 
revenue of the kingdom. As the army absorbs such 
an extraordinary portion of the revenue, it must be 
of importance to know exactly its amount and its 
state of efficiency; but as no returns are ever pub- 
lished, and as the organization of the army is in a 
continual state of change, it is extremely difficult to 
catch the fleeting form of the fashion of an hour. 

During the month of September, last year, the 
amount of the Greek army was stated by govern- 
ment to the allied powers to be about 9,250 men, in 
nearly equal portions of Greeks and Bavarians. Of 
these, the regular troops, consisting of eight battalions 
of infantry, a regiment of artillery, one of pioneers, 
and one of lancers, amounted to nearly 6,000 men. 
And a corps of Greek gendarmes, an efficient and 

* The mode in which the tenths are now collecting (July, 1836,) 
may be cited as proof. Ten sheaves are selected from the heaps at 
the threshing-floors, and their produce is taken as the scale of the 
proportion which the peasant is compelled to pay. To make the 
imposition greater, the grain is weighed, and he must deliver dry 
grain by weight. The tenth, by this manoeuvre of gout, becomes 
a tax of twenty per cent., the tax of twenty-five becomes fifty. I 
need not allude to the abuses of such a system of fraud on the part 
of the Government. 



104 THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 

useful body of men, who have distinguished them- 
selves by their valor and good conduct, was about 
1000 strong. The rest were light armed troops in 
the Greek dress, but with a regular system of organ- 
ization without regular discipline. 

At present the death and retirement of a number 
of Bavarians, have reduced the regular battalions to 
four, of which the two Bavarians are- now in part 
officered by Greeks. So rapid has been the decline 
of the regular troops, who are no longer favorites of 
the existing administration, that their number at 
present cannot exceed 3000 men. The gendarmes 
who are to a certain degree regular, are reduced to 
about 800. And a new class of troops, without any 
organization or discipline, collected by their own 
chiefs, has been assembled as a force capable of de- 
fending the state ; they are facetiously called national 
guards, as a caution, probably, to the nation to guard 
itself against them. The formation of the Phalanx, 
too, with its corps of officers, has enabled the army 
to be brought to such a state of efficiency, that we 
believe there is one officer in it for every two pri- 
vates.* Whether it is the intention of Count Ar- 
mansperg to abolish regular troops, and return to the 
system of palikarism as in the revolution, is not yet 
known ; but a few months of the present system of 
vacillation will have the effect of as completely dis- 

* Count Armansperg seems now occupied in re-assembling the 
very identically bands he dispersed by the ordinance of March 14, 
1833. He has already shaken hands with one proscribed chief of 
robbers against whom he dispatched troops last year. See page 54. 



AND THE GREEK NATION. 105 

solving the regular army, as a royal ordinance itself. 
We have already said that the present state of mili- 
tary affairs in Greece loudly demands the attention of 
the King, and the nation, and that without publicity, 
truth will never be attained, or wise measures adopted. 
That the national spirit of the Greeks is decidedly 
directed to naval affairs, is proved by the reputation 
which they earned for skill and daring, in their mar- 
itime warfare with the Turks. The names of Mia- 
oulis,* and Kanaris, will be cherished with respect 
and admiration, as long as capacity and courage, suc- 
cessfully exerted in a good cause, awaken the grati- 
tude of mankind. The aptitude of the Greek sailors 
in acquiring habits of discipline, have been displayed 
on several occasions, though the circumstance of the 
best seamen using exclusively the Albanian language, 
has thrown impediments in the way of its introduc- 
tion, with this difficulty of language to contend with, 
officers must possess patience equal to their skill, or 
they cannot hope to succeed. The exploits of Cap- 
tain Hastings, with a crew chiefly Hydriate, show 
what may be done by ability and perseverance. 
The steam-vessel commanded by that officer was the 

* Miaoulis, the best of the Greeks — the purest character of the 
revolution — is now no more. Though not a man of brilliant genius, 
he was a hero — and his name will go down to posterity as such. 
In a country where faction rages, he never had an enemy ; and 
where disorder was universal, he alone by a respect felt for his 
courage and disinterested patriotism, could secure the obedience of 
a fleet of sixty vessels, from every island of the Archipelago when 
the government of the country could not command one, 



106 THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 

first vessel from which red-hot shot have been habit- 
ually used at sea. Now, it is clear to every body, 
that the operation of heating a sixty-eight pound shot, 
and firing a number of these, and loaded shells, from 
a vessel, must be an operation of such delicacy and 
danger, as can only be undertaken, where the crew 
displays the greatest order, activity, and intelligence. 

Yet Captain Hastings, in a memoir on the subject, 
mentions, that during little more than a year's service, 
he fired 18,000 shells, and a considerable number of 
red-hot shot, and burnt seven Turkish vessels with- 
out a single accident on board his own ship.* We 
grieve to say, that the Greek navy is now in such a 
lamentable state of disorganization and inefficiency, 
that we cannot trust ourselves to make any observa- 
tions on the subject. 

It remains for us now only to notice the adminis- 
tration of Justice, and the conduct of the business of 
the department of the interior. Time will doubtless 
be required to model the execution of the laws of 
Greece to the exigencies of the country ; but as the 
attention of the Greeks is always directed to this sub- 
ject, there can be no doubt, that it will be effectually 
done, as soon as they are enabled, by means of a 
Council of State modelled as we have proposed, and 



* See a memoir on the use of Shells and hot shot from Ship ar- 
tillery, by Captain Frank Abney Hastings — London, 1828, Ridge- 
way. This able officer died of a woundreceived near Missolonghi, 
shortly after writing the above memoir at the request of the author 
of the present pamphlet. 



AND THE GREEK NATION. 107 

by a national assembly, to take part in their own 
legislation. 

The trial by jury in criminal cases, has already 
been introduced with the greatest success, and we 
have very little doubt that its extension to civil cases 
would be attended with great advantages ; for there 
is no other institution of Western Europe, so com- 
pletely in conformity with the manners and usages 
of the Greek people. Indeed they have been so long 
accustomed to a nearly similar mode of deciding ju- 
dicial affairs by the preseuce of the heads of families, 
with the village magistrate and priest, that the insti- 
tution of juries seems, even to the lower orders, to be 
nearly an improvement on their own system, the ad- 
vantages of which they fully appreciate. 

With regard to the civil administration of the 
country, as connected with the ministry of the interi- 
or, it is impossible for the most indifferent traveller 
not to perceive, that it is in the most deplorable state 
of inefficiency. Based on the system of centraliza- 
tion, without the influence and power of an estab- 
lished and complete organization, it is in direct op- 
position to the habits and usages of the people, and 
becomes an impediment to the settlement of the local 
affairs of the provinces, by introducing the theories of 
ministers, where they are absolutely injurious,* and 

* One of the Greek ministers proposed that the cultivation of 
Indian corn should be prohibited in Greece, as being unhealthy. 
He was with difficulty silenced by the probability of people who did 
not mind about dying of fever, using violent means to avoid death 
by starvation. If publicity had existed in Greeee, could this man 
have continued to be minister six months longer 1 



108 THE HELLENIC KINGDOM 

the intrigues of political parties where they would 
otherwise remain unknown. Until the popular insti- 
tutions of the country are brought into direct com- 
munication with the administrative department of 
the interior, we feel persuaded that little will be done 
for the permanent organization of Greece. Every 
body who appreciates the advantages of simplicity 
and publicity in the administration of public affairs, 
must perceive how great gainers the Greeks would 
immediately be by this change.* 

To conclude : it is our opinion, that if the Greek 
monarchy is to make those advances towards pros- 
perity, which the state of the country warrant, it 
can only be done by adopting a completely new sys- 
tem of administration and government. By returning 
immediately to the native institutions of Greece, in 
the administration of the affairs of the villages, by con- 
necting this with the communal system, and putting 
thatsysteminexecution.andbycreatingsomeorganfor 
the expression of public opinion in the highest sphere, 
and on questions of general legislation and adminis- 
tration, whether it be an efficient Council of State, or, 
what is far better, a legislative assembly. Publicity, 
however, must be introduced into every department 
of the public administration, in order that foreign- 
ers, whether they be Bavarians or Fanariotes, 

* So necessary was a change felt to be, even by the Chancellor, 
that, since writing the above, he has changed the 10 Nomarchies 
and 42 Eparchies, into which Greece was divided, into 30 districts 
and 17 subdistricts, as if the fault of the system lay in calling Count 
Armansperg chancellor, instead of prime minister. The fault 
really lies in despising the people, and contemning justice. 



AND THE GREEK NATION. 109 

may no longer render Greece one extensive sys- 
tem of private jobbing. There must be budgets and 
accounts of public expenditure regularly published 
wherever public wrong has been received, whether 
in the villages, or by the general government. The 
maxim hitherto current, that the people exist merely 
to be governed, and that the government itself is the 
state, must be laid aside altogether. Unless this is 
done, and done speedily, the cry for a national assem- 
bly will become irresistible and the excitement under 
which the assembly itself will meet, will be too great 
to ensure the adoption of prudent measures. In 
some way or other, Greece must obtain a system of 
government, in conformity with the usages of civilized 
Europe, and adapted to her own institutions, as her 
existence as an independent state is impossible. When 
such a system is adopted however, we have little doubt 
that the energies of the Greek nation will soon be dis- 
played in the advancement and prosperity of liberated 
Greece, and that its progress will rival that of the 
most favored countries. The active and industrious 
population of the Hellenic Kingdom may then be se- 
cure of exerting a powerful moral influence over the 
fortunes and happiness of those millions of their 
countrymen, who still groan under a foreign yoke. 
The moral improvement, if those Greeks hold out, 
in our opinion, the only rational hope of re-establish- 
ing order amidst the increasing anarchy of the Otto- 
man Empire, and may secure the union of some part 
of its population under a system of political equality, 
which may prevent its subjection by Russia. At all 
10 



110 THE HELLENIC KINGDOM. 

events, the prosperity of the Greek Kingdom is the 
first step towards the civilization of the East, and is 
of more importance to Europe, than its mere con- 
nection with the repayment of expended loans, or 
even than the mere political question of Hellenic in- 
dependence could alone make it. The moral condi- 
tion of several millions of mankind, and the ultimate 
civilization of Western Asia, can only be improved 
and advanced by the prosperity and good government 
of the subjects of King Otho. 



Note, page 44. The Fanariotes are a class of Greeks, so called, 
because the families from which they originated, inhabited a quar- 
ter of Constantinople called the Fanari. From this class the Porte 
used to select its Dragomans, (interpreters) who became important 
state officers, and some of whom were rewarded with the sovereign^ 
ties of Moldavia and Wallachia. They were educated with much 
care, became great linguists, and were distinguished for political 
tacl and cunning. The rest of the Greeks are jealous and suspi- 
cious of the Fanariotes ; some of them, however, have done the 
State some service ; as Mavrocordatos, and others. 



